Cornelius Jessie Coleman (July 5, 1928 – February 20, 1973), also called "Tenoo", was an American R&B drummer best known for playing with Fats Domino's band and on many of his hit records.

[2] Coleman first sat in with Fats Domino at the Mac Hansbury Lounge on Galvez Street, and joined his band in early 1951.

He came aboard about the same time as guitarist Walter "Papoose" Nelson and sax man Wendell Duconge.

He filled the chair previously held by Victor Leonard, Robert Stevens, Dave Oxley, Frank Parker, Willie Barbarin, John Cook, and Earl Palmer.

[5] Domino's band, on the road and in the studio beginning in 1952, consisted of Fats on piano and vocals, Buddy Hagans and Wendell Duconge on sax, Nelson on guitar, Billy Diamond on bass, and Coleman on drums.

"Tenoo was left-handed and could really keep a beat," Fats recalled, "I used to have him set up his drums right next to the piano because the drummer is where I get my drive from.

He was the biggest rock 'n' roll act in the United States, but still Fats and his musicians suffered from segregation.

"[2] On September 2, 1956, Coleman appeared with the Fats Domino band in its network television debut on The Steve Allen Show.

[15] Fats' records were being played regularly on Jamaican sound systems in the 1950s, and his accentuation of the offbeat is one of the roots of ska.

[1] "Tenoo was one hell of a drummer," said Bartholomew, "one of the best drummers in the world..."[2] Coleman recorded for some of Dave Bartholomew's solo releases,[18] and also for Smiley Lewis, Pee Wee Crayton,[19] T-Bone Walker, Billy Tate,[20] Roy Brown,[21] and Roosevelt Sykes.

[23] Charles "Hungry" Williams first studied drums during the time he spent in New Orleans' Municipal Boys Home.

[29] Author Charles Suhor saw Coleman take on Ed Blackwell, in a battle of the drummers at an American Jazz Quintet show in the mid-1950s.

He said Blackwell, "swung lightly through complex polyrhythmic lines, a brilliant colorist and phrase maker with swift wit embedded in daringly sculpted solos.

Coleman was the slasher, juxtaposing thickly accented snare and tom rhythms with familiar Afro-Cuban beats of the day all of it bristling with pre-funk energy that contrasted with Blackwell’s Max Roach/Shelly Manne-style of improvisation."

[30] In August 1966, Fats Domino and his band played the Village Gate in New York City with Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers.

New Orleans was the home of funky rhythms, dating back to Congo Square and Second Line parades, but notably played by drummers like Tenoo, his pupil Charles "Hungry" Williams, Joseph "Smokey" Johnson, and Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste of The Meters.

In early 1973, after a show with Dave Bartholomew's band at the Fountainbleau Hotel, Coleman suffered a stroke and died at the age of 44.