JAZ COLEMAN – the celebrated musician; composer; producer; author; lecturer; traveller; philosopher; actor and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, was born on 26 February 1960 in Cheltenham to an English father and an Anglo-Indian mother of half-Bengali descent.
Coleman 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 before forming the iconic post-punk band Killing Joke. Since coming together in 1978, Killing Joke, combining a fierce intelligence with a thirst for esoteric knowledge that matches a music that is visceral and almost spiritual in its primal spirit, are like no other band.
This is a group who came out of punk and then set out on one of the most remarkable and idiosyncratic journeys ever.