Jerry Coker

Jerry Coker (b. South Bend, November 28, 1932 - ) – Saxophonist, educator, and author. South Bend native Jerry Coker is considered the “C” in the “ABCs” of American Jazz Education with fellow Hoosiers Jamey “A” Aebersold and David “B” Baker completing the trivium. While a student at Indiana University, Coker played tenor saxophone in the Fred Dale Big Band, which co-won a national collegiate band contest sponsored by Metronome Magazine in 1953. Later in the same year, he left school to join Woody Herman’s band, of which he was a member for around two years. Shortly thereafter, he made some recordings as a leader in Bloomington, San Francisco and Paris, and in the late 1950s he played with Mel Lewis, among other West Coast musicians. In the mid-1960s, he returned to Indiana University and worked with the jazz program as a graduate assistant and later as an adjunct. From there, he taught at the University of Miami and later at North Texas State and the University of Tennessee. Not only is he a highly sought-after clinician, but he is highly published in the areas of improvisation, jazz keyboard, and jazz history.