[2] Shortly thereafter, Coleman began working as a sideman with David Murray, Doug Hammond, Dave Holland, Michael Brecker and Abbey Lincoln.

During his first four years in New York, Coleman played in the streets and in small clubs with a band that he put together with trumpeter Graham Haynes.

Coleman collaborated with other young African-American musicians such as Cassandra Wilson and Greg Osby, and they founded the so-called M-Base movement.

One of his main interests was the Yoruba tradition (predominantly out of western Nigeria) which is one of the Ancient African Religions underlying Santería (Cuba and Puerto Rico), Vodou (Haiti) and Candomblé (Bahia, Brazil).

He also led his group Five Elements to the south of India in 1998 to participate in a cultural exchange with different musicians in the carnatic music tradition.

[6] In the letter, she wrote that she believed Coleman had taken advantage of his position as her prominent and older mentor to groom and manipulate her into a romantic and sexual relationship characterised by 'an abusive dynamic' and 'sexual harrassment' from 2011 to 2016.