Jeremy "Jaz" Coleman (born 26 February 1960) is an English singer and musician. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as the lead vocalist and keyboardist of post-punk group Killing Joke.
Coleman is known for his unique raspy baritone voice and intense stage presence (occasionally appearing wearing face makeup). Bill Janovitz, writer for the website Allmusic, described Coleman's stage presence and voice as "almost always full-on in his approach, with a terrifying growl of a voice that is similar to that of Motörhead's Lemmy". In the first part of their career, Coleman also played synth while singing, adding electronic atonal sounds to create a disturbing atmosphere to their music. He still continues to play keyboards and synths in studio recordings
In addition, Coleman has composed orchestral and soundtrack pieces.
Killing Joke have influenced numerous bands such as Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Jane's Addiction, My Bloody Valentine, Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Godflesh, Soundgarden, Metallica and Marilyn Manson. James Hetfield picked Coleman as one of his favourite singers. In November 2010, the band received the "Innovator Award" at the 2010 Classic Rock Roll of Honour; the award was presented to Killing Joke by admirer and friend Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, who stated, "I go back a long way with Jaz Coleman and the band. I used to go and see the band, and it was a band that really impressed me."
Early life
Coleman was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, to Ronald A. and Gloria H. (née Pandy) Coleman: an English father and an Anglo-Indian mother of half-Bengali descent, both of whom were school teachers. He studied piano and violin under Eric Coleridge, head of music for Cheltenham College, until the age of 17, and was a member of several cathedral choirs in England. He later moved to and became a citizen of New Zealand.
Coleman studied in Leipzig, East Germany, in 1978, and Cairo Conservatoire in 1979, completing an extensive study of Arabic quarter tones at the latter institution. According to his own account, Coleman also studied international banking for three years in Switzerland and is an ordained priest with a church in New Zealand.
Music career
Killing Joke
In 1978, Coleman founded Killing Joke with drummer Paul Ferguson in Notting Hill, England. The pair then recruited guitarist Geordie Walker and bassist Martin Glover (aka Youth). The group released their first single in October 1979 and their first eponymous album was released in 1980. Coleman told biographer Jyrki "Spider" Hämäläinen that forming the band felt "it was the destiny". Coleman contributed lead vocals and keyboards to the band's songs, which are categorised as post-punk, and the music later inspired the industrial rock and metal genres.
Solo composition and recordings
Coleman once quit Killing Joke temporarily following a gig in 1982; the day after, he travelled to Iceland and announced his intention to become a classical composer. Ten years of studying and ongoing Killing Joke involvement later, he commenced conducting and worked with some of the world's leading orchestras. Conductor Klaus Tennstedt described him as a "new Mahler".
In 1990, in collaboration with Anne Dudley, Coleman released his first purely instrumental album entitled Songs from the Victorious City, which is formally classified as "World Music", but is primarily composed of a mixture of middle eastern folk themes mixed with western pop-oriented themes.
In 1995, Coleman released his first of three albums of symphonic rock music: Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd, which peaked at number one in the Billboard Magazine Top Classical Crossover Albums chart, and Kashmir: Symphonic Led Zeppelin were both written and produced by Coleman with Peter Scholes conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In June 2007, Coleman collaborated with over 150 youth musicians in the Contemporary Youth Orchestra, based in Cleveland, Ohio, to perform the entirety of Kashmir: Symphonic Led Zeppelin along with additional orchestrations of Led Zeppelin's music. In 1999, he produced and arranged an album of Doors material for orchestra, performed by classical musicians including Nigel Kennedy and the Prague Symphony Orchestra, called Riders on the Storm: The Doors Concerto (CD released in 2000). He has worked with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, who have issued a CD of his Symphony No. 1 "Idavoll" with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and as composer-in-residence to the Prague Symphony Orchestra.
In 1996, he released Pacifica: Ambient Sketches, recorded with the New Zealand String Quartet.