Jaz Coleman

Jaz Coleman

Jaz Coleman is a musician and composer from Cheltenham, United Kingdom, born in 1960. He works across post-punk, industrial metal, metal and classical music, and is best known as a member of Killing Joke and K÷93.

Early training and musical background

He grows up in an academic family that revere Da Vinci and begins studying piano and violin at the age of six. He is admitted to sing for the Addington Palace Choir, and by the age of ten he sings in major English cathedrals. As a chorister he receives the Saint Nicholas Award. By fourteen, his prizes include the Gold Medal at the Bath International Festival, a Distinction for violin, and the Rex Watson Cup at the Cheltenham International Festival of Music.

Killing Joke

In 1979, at the age of 17, Coleman founds Killing Joke, the post-punk experimental group with which he becomes most closely associated. The band’s touring and recordings go on to influence later artists including Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Tool, Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and Metallica. In 2003 he promotes the band’s eleventh recording, the self-titled Killing Joke, which features the original members alongside Dave Grohl.

Classical studies and orchestral work

Coleman studies in Cairo Conservatoire in 1979, where he makes an extensive study of Arabic quarter tones, and he becomes the first western student to study oriental music at an Arabic conservatoire. He later studies in Leipzig in the DDR in 1987. His work with Anne Dudley leads to Songs From the Victorious City, recorded with master players from Cairo.

In late 1989, the score for his Symphony No. 1, Idavoll, is reviewed by the East German conductor Klaus Tennstedt, who describes him as “our new Mahler”. After further study in composition, Coleman takes New Zealand citizenship in 1992 and becomes resident composer of the Auckland Philharmonia. His classical work brings collaborations and recordings with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Auckland Philharmonia, Czech Philharmonic, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Collegium, Prague Chamber Orchestra and the New Zealand String Quartet.

He records 15 classical albums in ten years and reaches the American crossover charts with three top-five entries and two number ones, including one that remains at number one for 103 weeks.

Opera, concert works and collaborations

In 2001, the Royal Opera House commissions his first large-scale opera, The Marriage at Cana, with a libretto by Sir Laurence Gardner and painted acts by Andrew Jones. The opera concerns themes around Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene and exile to Provence. That same year the Royal Opera House also commissions Unwanted, a Concerto Grosso for violin, viola and string orchestra about the plight of Roma people in Central Europe, created with Czech photographer Jana T.

On 22 March 2003, Princeton and Columbia Universities commission Music of the Quantum, a major work written and performed for an event about quantum physics, superconductivity and anti-gravity research. The event is titled Coleman2 and is linked to his brother, Professor Piers Coleman, a physicist working in superconductivity. It is performed at Columbia University and then repeated at Bethlehem Chapel in Prague the following year.

Coleman also writes for other artists and ensembles. His arrangement of the Rolling Stones’ “Angie”, recorded with Mick Jagger and the London Symphony Orchestra, is used as the theme for Keith Richards’ daughter’s wedding. He writes violin concertos for Aboud Abdel Al, Vasko Vassiliev, Matousek, Pavel Sporcl and Karel Holas, and he continues as composer in residence of the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

Film and other projects

He works extensively on film soundtracks, including music for Mulan with Vanessa Mae, Weird Science, Cinderella and Showgirls. In 2001 he plays the Devil, conducts and composes the soundtrack for Petr Zelenka’s The Year of the Devil, a film that becomes a multi-award-winning cult title and reaches fifteen-times platinum status. The film also reflects his involvement in the Czech folk scene.

His interest in Maori music leads to a 1998 commission for the music of the Rugby World Cup and the America’s Cup. At the 1999 Rugby World Cup opening, he replaces the English version of the New Zealand national anthem with Maori, performed by Hinewehi Mohi, which leads to a public debate in New Zealand and changes in the law. He later produces the first international release of contemporary Maori music, Oceania, which sells 700,000 copies.

Later work and recognition

In 2002 he receives three Grammys and quadruple platinum sales for Promeny, a concerto for Czech folk group and orchestra. In 2004 and 2005 he arranges Sarah Brightman’s album Harem and writes 12 further arias for her. He also works with Nigel Kennedy on East Meets East and continues to plan and record further concert works, including a war concerto and a cello concerto based on the lost landscape of England.

His output extends to more than 50 recordings, and he also designs a temple he intends to build in New Zealand. He has been an active member of four internationally recognised mystical orders and resigns from two of them in 1993.