Victor Coulsen Victor Coulsen Victor "Vic" Coulsen (dates unknown) was an American jazz 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's direction from as early as 1940. Coulsen has often been remembered has having had a seminal influence on the phrasing of early bebop by the likes of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and several others - Charlie Parker among them. Parker remembers Coulsen (here spelled "Coulson") ""playing things I'd never heard before"", and states that the music he heard on
John Coltrane discography the session as September 27, 1949 in New York City, but Lewis Porter's "John Coltrane: His Life and Music" states that he was on tour with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band during that time. Most sources confirm that he recorded with Billy Valentine on November 7 in Los Angeles for Mercury Records. In subsequent years, Coltrane sat in on recording sessions with Gillespie, Johnny Hodges, Earl Bostic, and Gay Crosse. In September 1955, Coltrane joined the Miles Davis Quintet and appeared on several Miles Davis-led recordings, including "'Round About Midnight" and "Milestones". He briefly joined Thelonious Monk in May 1957,