Background
Coleman was born to a family of sharecroppers in Gainesville, Alabama.
Coleman was born to a family of sharecroppers in Gainesville, Alabama.
He was a popular musical attraction throughout Alabama and recorded several sides in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He performed locally for small wages at dance halls and parties. In 1914, upon the outbreak of the First World War, Coleman joined the United States Army and was stationed at Fort McClellan for the entirety of the conflict.
At the fort, he developed a reputation for being stubbornly independent, often disobeying the Army"s strict code of conduct.
As a result, his superior officers would call him Jaybird, a nickname that was associated with him for the rest of his life. lieutenant was also during this time that Coleman first performed for large crowds as he entertained his fellow soldiers.
In 1922, Coleman teamed up with singer and guitarist Big Joe Williams in tours across Alabama. He then spent two years traveling with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, a popular tent show making appearances throughout the South.
The Colemans were regular churchgoers and were renowned in the black community for their renditions of gospel songs.
As a blues musician, Coleman was equally popular among both black and white audiences. Occasionally he would play his harmonica as he strolled through the streets, with an accumulating crowd accompanying him. His records were met with commercial success, but Coleman asserted he was never compensated for his work.
Despite his treatment by white-owned record companies, Coleman allowed a charter of the Ku Klux Klan to manage his touring schedule and expand his audience to major southern cities.
Typically, Coleman"s performances featured little or no accompaniment in a style rooted in the working songs of his childhood. In the 1930s, Coleman was loosely associated with the Birmingham Jug Band, a group he helped form, and recorded with them in sessions for OKeh Records and Columbia Records.
In 1930, he recorded "Coffee Grinder Blues" for Columbia, which, in a dispute with the label over payment, he blocked from wider release. lieutenant is his rarest record.
Coleman continued to perform on street corners in Alabama throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
By the end of the 1940s, he disappeared from the music scene He died of cancer on January 28, 1950, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Jaybird Coleman & the Birmingham Jug Band 1927-1930 - Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (Document, 1992).
In 1926, Coleman began recording for Gennett Records, Silverstone Records, and Black Patti Records as a solo performer and as a member of the Bessemer Blues Pickers.