Good morning.
Today we’re listening to Coleman Hawkins, an American saxophonist from Missouri. Born in 1904, Hawkins picked up the saxophone at age nine and by age 14 was touring eastern Kansas.1 He moved to New York City, where Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra gave him a platform to establish tenor saxophone as a primary instrument of jazz music.2 He was partly responsible for the rise of bebop in the ‘40s, but we’re listening to two of his late-career albums. The Hawk Relaxes (1961) is a collection of cooler jazz pieces, as the title suggests, and features Kenny Burrell on guitar and Ron Carter on bass. Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster (1959) is a collaborative record with fellow tenor Webster, on which each player’s style appears in stronger relief next to the other’s.
The Hawk Relaxes - Coleman Hawkins (40m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster - Coleman Hawkins & Ben Webster (50m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Tidal
Have a great Thursday.
Gorgeous!! Thanks so much for this newsletter, always looking forward to it
He was one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time, with a career spanning from the Black entertainment circuits of the 1920s up until his death several decades later. Just on the basis on his famous recording of "Body And Soul" in the 1940s, he firmly established the undisputed status of the saxophone as a mainstay of jazz lineups.