While trumpeter Bill Coleman worked with many groups in the U.S., he was relatively unknown in his native land. However in Europe he made a strong impression during 1935-40 before being forced by World War II to return to the United States. Unlike Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Dicky Wells and Eddie South, Coleman returned permanently to Europe in 1948, playing swing and dixieland on the Continent in the decades before his death in 1981. He is in excellent form with Reinhardt in a septet on Baby Won’t You Please Come Home, Big Boy Blues (which has both Christian Wagner and Big Boy Goudie on clarinets) and Swing Guitars, and really excels on Bill Coleman Blues, a duet with Django Reinhardt.
