Jerry Coker

Jerry Coker (November 28, 1932 – January 14, 2024) was an American jazz saxophonist and pedagogue.

Coker was born in South Bend, Indiana. He attended Indiana University in the early 1950s, but interrupted his studies in 1953 when Woody Herman offered him a job in "The Herd". Coker eventually earned undergraduate and graduate degrees while he taught jazz at Sam Houston State University (then Sam Houston State Teachers College). He recorded under his own name in the mid-1950s and as a sideman with Nat Pierce, Dick Collins, and Mel Lewis; later that decade he played with Stan Kenton.

In 1960 Coker began teaching and increasingly turned to music education and composition. He taught at Duke University, University of Miami (where he created one of the first jazz degree programs in the country at the Frost School of Music), North Texas State University, and started the Studio Music and Jazz program at the University of Tennessee, where he was a professor of music from the 1980s through the 2000s. Notable students include Randy Brecker and Pat Metheny. Coker and his colleagues Jamey Aebersold and David Baker have been called the "ABCs" of jazz education, and in 1994 Coker was inducted into the Jazz Educators Hall of Fame.

Coker died on January 14, 2024, at the age of 91.

Birth and Death Data: Born 1932 (South Bend (city and county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States of America)), Died January 14, 2024

Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1954

Roles Represented in DAHR: tenor saxophone

= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.

Recordings

Company Matrix No. Size First Recording Date Title Primary Performer Description Role Audio
Decca 86217 4/28/1954 I only have eyes for you Fred Dale Orchestra instrumentalist, tenor saxophone  
Decca 86218 4/28/1954 Laura Fred Dale Orchestra instrumentalist, tenor saxophone  
Decca 86219 4/28/1954 Mean to me Fred Dale Orchestra instrumentalist, tenor saxophone  
Decca 86220 4/28/1954 Ginger Fred Dale Orchestra instrumentalist, tenor saxophone  

Citation

Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Coker, Jerry," accessed December 24, 2025, http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/309056.

Coker, Jerry. (2025). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved December 24, 2025, from http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/309056.

"Coker, Jerry." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2025. Web. 24 December 2025.

DAHR Persistent Identifier

URI: http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/309056

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