Jerry Coker was born in South Bend, Indiana on November 28, 1932. He began his musical career as a saxophonist with Woody Herman's orchestra in 1953. Coker toured with the group until 1954 and went on to record for the Vogue label in Paris (1954) and with Mel Lewis in San Francisco (1956). He freelanced on the West Coast until enrolling in Sam Houston State University, where he earned his BME (1959) and MA (1960). He also completed 40 credits toward a PhD at Indiana University (1964-1967). Coker began his teaching career at Sam Houston State University (1958-1962) and taught at Monterey Peninsula College (1962-1964), Indiana University (1964-1966), the University of Miami (1966-1973), Pembroke State University (1973-1974), and Duke University (1974-1975) before coming to the University of Tennessee as a Professor of Music in 1975. Coker also wrote a number of books, including Improvising Jazz (1964), The Jazz Idiom (1975), Listening to Jazz (1978), Jazz Keyboard (1984), and Drones for Improvisation (1984).