Victor "Vic" Coulsen was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 trumpeter.

Often referred to as Vic Coulsen, Vic Coulson, and even Vic Couslen, Coulsen was a member of the resident band at the Monroe's club, under Al Tinney

Al Tinney

Allen "Al" Tinney was an American jazz pianist.Tinney was a child actor on the stage, and was a cast member in the original production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in 1935...

's direction from as early as 1940.

Coulsen has often been remembered has having had a seminal influence on the phrasing of early bebop

Bebop

Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...

 by the likes of Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...

, Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

, Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...

 and several others - Charlie Parker

Charlie Parker

Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....

 among them. Parker remembers Coulsen (here spelled "Coulson") "playing things I'd never heard before", and states that the music he heard on those nights at Monoroe's caused him to quit Jay McShann

Jay McShann

Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....

's band and relocate to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

These testimonies make Coulsen one of the founding fathers (albeit a minor one) of the bebop idiom. Unfortunately, Coulsen never recorded, except for some tracks taken in 1944 with an orchestra led by Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...

, where he performs in the trumpet section, taking no solos.

Nothing is known of Coulsen's early life. After 1945, according to Al Tinney's testimony, Coulsen became an alcoholic (a "wino

Wino

Wino is a slang term for a person, especially one who is homeless, who consumes large amounts of alcohol, usually in the form of low-end fortified wineWino may also refer to:* Wino , a subatomic particle...

", in Tinney's words) falling back into obscurity.