Coleman Hawkins
“Coleman Hawkins instantly established authority when he took the stage, before he had even played a note. Though short of stature, he was a handsome, solidly built man, impeccably dressed, with an aura that commanded respect. And once he began to play, his sound alone sufficed to seduce or arouse the listener, depending on the mood and spirit of the music being made” — Dan Morgenstern, Living With Jazz
Before Coleman Hawkins came to maturity, Sidney Bechet and Adrian Rollini had already taken giant steps on the soprano and bass saxophones respectively, establishing the idea that the saxophone could be used to make great jazz. It was left to Hawkins to process the innovations of Louis Armstrong in an intensely personal way, and fashion out of them his own voice.
There are very few musicians in any genre who remain protean figures for as long as Coleman Hawkins did. When he gave up the cello for the saxophone in the early 1920s, not only was his chosen instrument considered a joke at best, there was as yet no model for coherent jazz improvisation.
Miraculously, at the age of 35 he would have a hit recording, Body And Soul, that remains one of the most sophisticated and challenging items ever to come remotely near the bestseller’s list. And by the age of 59 Coleman Hawkins would more than hold his own in studio encounters with John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins — both of whose careers would have been unimaginable without Coleman Hawkins’ precedent.
Body & Soul
October 1939
Coleman Hawkins and His Orchestra: Tommy Lindsay, Joe Guy (tp), Earl Hardy (tb), Jackie Fields, Eustis Moore (as), Coleman Hawkins (ts, arr), Gene Rodgers (p, arr), Oscar Smith (b), Art Herbert (d), Thelma Carpenter (vcl), Hazel Scott (arr).
No matter how nonchalantly Coleman Hawkins tried to make the choice to record Body And Soul seem, it had long been his encore during his European years, and he had a lot riding on this session. Lester Young was at his zenith with the Basie band, and virtually all of the other major bands had a Hawkins-styled tenor in a featured position.
The decades as a musical omnivore came to fruition as Coleman Hawkins signaled to pianist Gene Rodgers to make an introduction in Db. The sounds of Bach, Tatum, Armstrong, and the untold musicians who had filled his head and ears culminated in one of the greatest spontaneous set of variations ever recorded. — Loren Schoenberg (Mosaic Records)
