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
Charlie Parker jazz standards. On November 30, 1949, Norman Granz arranged for Parker to record an album of ballads with a mixed group of jazz and chamber orchestra musicians. Six master takes from this session comprised the album "Charlie Parker with Strings": "Just Friends", "Everything Happens to Me", "April in Paris", "Summertime", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", and "If I Should Lose You". In 1953, Parker performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, joined by Gillespie, Mingus, Powell and Roach. Unfortunately, the concert happened at the same time as a televised heavyweight boxing match between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe