George Coleman, A.K.A. Bongo Joe (1923-1999)

Arhoolie Records is very sad to report the death of a truly classic musician. He will be greatly missed. George "Bongo Joe" Coleman, died Sunday, December 19, 1999, at 3:30 pm.

Reviews of his only album can be found on the page for his CD 1040.

Following is a reprint of a cover story from the Tuesday, December 21, 1999
copy of the San Antonio Express-News.

Downtown fixture Bongo Joe dies

By Jacque Crouse and Jim Beal
Express-News Staff Writers

   Legendary San Antonio street musician Bongo Joe has died at age 76.
   The whistling, upbeat entertainer, who died Sunday, delighted downtown audiences with an almost-nightly percussion performance for more than 20 years. But he ceased public appearances in the early 1990s due to diabetes and kidney disease.
   Born George Coleman in Haines City, Fla., on Nov. 28, 1923, Coleman made his way to San Antonio during HemisFair '68, the city's World's Fair. He had lived here ever since, continuing a musical career that began in the 1940s and included everything from gigs with Sammy Davis Jr. to playing on the beach in Galveston, the streets of San Antonio and at exclusive parties in private homes and country clubs.
   Quint Davis. producer and director of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, said Coleman - who performed there nine times - was a great musician. "He was a real talent. He wasn't just a curiosity. Bongo Joe, George Coleman, had three things going, for him. First and foremost, he was a drummer," Davis said Monday. "He also had these metal pipes with various sizes of BB shot inside. They were taped onto his drum sticks, and he also had soft heads on his drum sticks. He could hit the drums, which were 55-gallon oil drums, and maintain a maraca rhythm with the pipes."
   Coleman's friend and business manager, Helen Glau, said he played for President John F. Kennedy at the Cellar, a club in Fort Worth, the night before Kennedy was assassinated. President Gerald Ford sought him out to travel and perform in a 10-city sweep during Ford's 1976 presidential campaign.
   Davis said Coleman played piano with Dizzy Gillespie one year at the New Orleans festival. "Since he was such an unusual character, I think people didn't realize how good a musician he really was. Dizzy Gillespie obviously did," Davis said "Bongo Joe had this incredible drumming, incredible social commentary and this weird whistling. It had a real quality and depth to it."
   Bongo Joe's father was killed before his birth, and his mother died when he was 7, Glau said. After graduating from high school, he headed for Detroit to see an older sister. There, he was introduced to the Detroit jazz scene and began playing with, among others. Sammy Davis Jr., Glau said.
   "Joe was even better on the piano than he was the drums, but he liked playing to what he called 'my people' on the streets," Glau said. "We were friends for 31 years, and I helped set up his performances, but , he once even told me that no one ,would ever come between him and his people. He said as long as there were people out there to listen, he would be there. "He would turn down (a betterpaying performance) to go play to people on the street. "Joe's quick wit and humor became a River Walk trademark. He rode a motorbike, towing his equipment: 55-gallon oil drums and a small public address system.
   He even appeared in a television commercial with San Antonio Symphony Music Director Francois Huybrechts in 1978, promoting the upcoming symphony season.
   Glau said Coleman played on the beach in Galveston for 15 years before he came to San Antonio. "Mohammad Ali once came to see him," Glau remembered. "He also played the San Antonio Country Club, the YO Ranch (near Kerrville) and for private parties in Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills."
   In 1984, Coleman pleaded guilty to shooting a spectator he said he thought was going to hurt him as he played downtown on April 9 that year. He received five years probation and continued to play for the crowds.
   Michael Mehl, a local photographer, artist and composer, worked with Bongo Joe in 1991 when Mehl produced three shows called "Almost Live from the Liberty Bar" that aired on KLRN, the PBS affiliate. "He was the pre-eminent performance artist. What strikes me as his legacy is how fiercely independent, how iconoclastic he was. He was also very, very insightful," Mehl said. "He was interested in philosophy, in electronic music. He was basically sampling when he was working, and that was many, many years ago. He was doing things musically that were years ahead of their time."
   "It's people like him who are the soul of the city." San Antonio Police Detective Anton Michalec agreed. "He was a nice guy, a daily figure downtown for many years," Michalec said. "He was beautifully entertaining It's really too bad there isn't someone like him around now."
   Chris Strachwitz, president of Arhoolie Records, recorded Bongo Joe's only album in 1968. The album, "George Coleman: Bongo Joe" still is in print. Catalog numbers are CD 1040 and CASS 1040.
   "He was the original rapper.... I tried to record him in the street, with the crowd interaction, but my tape machine went out. I took him to a friend's house and recorded him there," Strachwitz said, adding: "He was an amazing drummer, too. I just saw him as a wonderful storyteller. He was an improvising genius. His songs are powerful little statements."
   Coleman was to be cremated and a memorial service will be held after the holidays, Glau said.