This Week in Texas Music History, we spend time with a street musician who danced to the beat of a very different drum.
Episodes written by Jason Mellard, Alan Schaefer, and Avery Armstrong
On November 28, 1923, percussionist George Coleman, better known as Bongo Joe, was born in Florida. He lost his parents at an early age and grew up in the household of an older sister in Detroit, where he became fascinated with the jazz scene and started playing drums. He moved to Houston after WWII and joined bands in his new Texas home. He couldn’t afford a full kit, though, so he improvised by adapting fifty-five gallon oil drums, the common barrels used to transport Houston’s prized commodity. He found their pounding sound more suited to the streets than the stage and played as a street performer across Texas, from Houston to Galveston and into Mexico before settling in San Antonio about the time of Hemisfair ’68.
By then, at his familiar post around Alamo Plaza, he had perfected his idiosyncratic technique of mic-ing the drums and making use of a small amplifier. He sang along to the beat with a surreal and funny lyricism, working up songs like “Science Fiction,” “Dog Eat Dog,” and “Transistor Radio.”
Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records recognized Coleman’s singular gift and put out an LP in 1968, the bulk of his recorded content. But Bongo Joe got plenty of attention in his career, performing often at the New Orleans Jazz Festival (including with Dizzy Gillespie), appearing on San Antonio’s PBS affiliate, and even traveling with Gerald Ford’s 1976 presidential campaign. By all accounts, Bongo Joe’s role as a street performer was by choice rather than necessity, as he often passed up opportunities for more regular gigs. “What I like most about playing drums on street corners,” he said, “is that I’m my own boss and I’m free to speak what I feel. When you play in the clubs, you’re limited.” He was a fixture in the San Antonio cityscape through the early 90s, when age and illness caught up with him. He passed in 1999, but his unique rhythms still resonate, a true maverick of Texas music.
