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Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (June 14, 1932, Manhattan, New York or possibly (unconfirmed)Winston-Salem,North Carolina – March 9, 2004,Chicago) was an Americancomposer whose interests spanned the worlds ofjazz,dance, pop,film,television, andclassical music. Professionally he was often known as"Coleridge Perkinson".
Perkinson wasAfrican-American and was named after the Black British composerSamuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912). Perkinson's mother was active in music and the arts as a piano teacher, church organist, and director of a theater company.[2]
Perkinson attended theHigh School of Music and Art in New York City andNew York University. He later transferred to theManhattan School of Music, where he studied composition withVittorio Giannini and Charles Mills. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from theManhattan School of Music.[3] He also studied withEarl Kim atPrinceton University. He was on the faculty ofBrooklyn College (1959–1962) and studied conducting in the summers of 1960, 1962, and 1963 in theNetherlands withFranco Ferrara andDean Dixon and also learned conducting in 1960 at theMozarteum inSalzburg.
Perkinson co-founded theSymphony of the New World in New York in 1965 and later became its music director. He was also music director ofJerome Robbins' American Theater Lab and theAlvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Perkinson composed a ballet for Ailey titledFor Bird, With Love, inspired by the music ofCharlie Parker.[2]
Perkinson wrote a great deal of classical music while additionally composing in jazz and popular music. He served briefly aspianist for drummerMax Roach’s quartet and wrote arrangements for Roach,Marvin Gaye, andHarry Belafonte. He also composed music for films such asThe McMasters (1970),Together for Days (1972),A Warm December (1973),Thomasine & Bushrod (1974),The Education of Sonny Carson (1974),Amazing Grace (1974),Mean Johnny Barrows (1976), and the documentaryMontgomery to Memphis (1970) aboutMartin Luther King Jr. In 1970, he wrote incidental music for at least one episode of the US television showRoom 222.
Perkinson's music has a blend ofBaroquecounterpoint; AmericanRomanticism; elements of theblues,spirituals, and blackfolk music; and rhythmic ingenuity.
