Rooted in the blues, spiked with R&B urgency, and resonant with deep-soul passion, the music of Omar Coleman both moves the heart and galvanizes the feet. Born & Raised burns with the enthusiasm, fire, and dedication of a young man making his mark on the world.
Omar, who was born in 1973, is a knowledgeable and committed carrier of the Chicago blues tradition; he just insists on carrying that tradition in his own way. One of his seminal exposures to blues harmonica was through the iconoclastic, genre-jumping experimentalism of Sugar Blue, but he has also immersed himself in the postwar Chicago heritage. “Junior Wells is my main influence," he affirms. “I love Little Walter, both Sonny Boy Williamsons, Snooky Pryor, Slim Harpo, all that stuff."
In that spirit, Omar combines ideas drawn from roots men like Wells with a propulsive, rhythmically diverse modernism patterned after the legendary “folk-funk" maestro, Bobby Rush, whom he first encountered via records his grandmother used to play around the house. As a vocalist, he casts an equally wide net. He admires deep-soul romanticists like Al Green along with grittier soul-blues singers such as Syl Johnson, Willie Clayton and the late Marvin Sease – but again, he refuses to be pigeonholed: “I love Junior Wells’ singing," he reiterates, “I love Bobby Rush’s singing. And I listen to a lot of church music – the Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Pilgrim Jubilees."