Amandla is from the language of Zulu, meaning - power.
Claude Coleman Jr. is best known as the perversely versatile live/studio drummer for cult-rock godsWeen. For more than fourteen years his acrobatic drumming talents have dazzled audiences around theglobe, with powerfully dynamic performances that have helped to elevate Ween's status as a live band.He has also been well employed by many other artists including Eagles of Death Metal,Chocolate Genius, and Elysian Fields,.
Amandla is the name of his group, of which is entirely all Coleman on record, singing and performing hissongs on every instrument as well as doing the engineering and producing.
On his second independent release The Full Catastrophe, Coleman continues his leaping acrossboundaries of style and sound. There is still a steady current of rock, pop, folk and soul, resting a naturalbed of psychedelica, now stretching a bit further into jazz territories, and further into limitless expressionof every influence.
It is the product of a four year journey back from the brink of living, in which he had to reclaim control ofhis body and life well enough to finish the work.
During the time of creating what would result to be The Full Catastrophe, Coleman survived anear-fatal car accident in which he suffered multiple pelvic fractures and severe trauma and brain injuries,resulting in partial paralysis of the left side of the body. After a 35-day hospitalization stay and extensivesurgery, he was then confined to a wheelchair for two entire months. The traumatic pain was soimmobilizing and debilitating; he couldn't raise his arm for four months, let alone play anything.
The same truck driver responsible for this accident would four years later, go on to cause an accident on the New Jersey Turnpike causing four fatalities. In August, 2006, in an eerily similar rear-end accident, his load of bricks capsized, crushing several cars and causing a multi-car pileup.
With months of intensive cognitive and physical therapy ahead of him, Coleman worked ceaselessly torehabilitate himself. He worked outside of the five days a week of cognitive, occupational and physicaltherapy he was already receiving at The Kessler Institute and hired occupational therapist RobertFieramusco.
Coleman's recovery since then has been nothing short of amazing. Told by a neurologist he would haveto work twice as hard to gain back the specialized motor skills needed for musicianship, Coleman hasdone just that. He performs and records with numbness and residual paralysis, living his life throughchronic pain, and playing has become his therapy to regain the lost, finer dexterity.
A personal triumph of the fullness of the living experience: The Full Catastrophe. Lyrically powerful, it embraces a holistic response to his experiences: not just with one emotion burdened by itself, but with the full spectrum of all emotions and all sensations.
Catch Amandla live throughout 2008 touring nationally.
http://www.amandlanet.com
