Claude Coleman, Jr.

Claude Coleman Jr performing with Ween at the Edmonton Events Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on November 17, 2007.

Claude Coleman, Jr. is the drummer for the alternative rock group Ween.^[1] He has also worked with Eagles of Death Metal, Chocolate Genius, and Elysian Fields.

A multi-instrumentalist, Coleman is also the singer/songwriter for his own group Amandla. His independently released debut record Falling Alone, was a DIY effort as he wrote and produced all the music, sang and played all the instruments as well as engineered and mixed most of the tracks in his studio. He also built the studio, having wired all the patch bays and done the fine carpentry down to the speaker stands. In 2007, he released his second album as Amandla, titled The Full Catastrophe.

Coleman is a survivor of a near-fatal car accident on August 7th, 2002, in which he suffered multiple pelvic fractures and severe brain injuries. After a 35-day hospitalization stay extensive surgery was performed on his multiple-fractured pelvis confining him to a wheelchair for two entire months while he healed. Coleman was so weak and in such immobilizing and debilitating pain, he couldn't muster the strength to lift his left arm or move any part of that side of his body for four months, let alone hold a stick in his hand.

With months of intensive cognitive and physical therapy ahead of him, Coleman worked ceaselessly to build up the strength on his left hand side. During this time, members of Ween, their families and friends, rallied round Coleman organizing a series of benefit concerts. On October 7 and 8, 2002, New York's Bowery Ballroom was booked two-months after the accident, and drummer Josh Freese agreed to play, free of charge, in Coleman's place. Given a goal to work towards, Coleman aimed to be strong enough to attend both benefit nights which he did, surprising everyone by standing the first night and walking up the stairs the second.

Also active in music education, in March 2005 Coleman became involved with the Paul Green School of Rock, New York City where he teaches drums, guitar, bass and vocals as well as directs the school's classic rock themed shows performed in venues around New York City. In addition, he has facilitated music/songwriting workshops for camp children aged nine through 16 through the New York City music program Music Ascension.

He is a graduate of Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ. His father, Claude Coleman, was a police officer, eventually rising to the position of director of the Newark, NJ fire and police departments, and later becoming a judge.

References

1. ^ DeRogatis, Jim (2003-10-01). Milk it!: collected musings on the alternative music explosion of the 90s. Da Capo Press. p. 330. ISBN 9780306812712. http://books.google.com/books?id=LXNUWWuzscMC&pg=PA330. Retrieved 8 April 2011. 

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