Coleman Hawkins

About

Coleman Randolph Hawkins, nicknamed “Hawk” and sometimes “Bean”, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. One of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument, as Joachim E. Berendt explained: “there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn”. Hawkins biographer John Chilton described the prevalent styles of tenor saxophone solos prior to Hawkins as “mooing” and “rubbery belches”. Hawkins denied being first and noted his contemporaries Happy Caldwell, Stump Evans, and Prince Robinson, although he was the first to tailor his method of improvisation to the saxophone rather than imitate the techniques of the clarinet. Hawkins’ virtuosic, arpeggiated approach to improvisation, with his characteristic rich, emotional, and vibrato-laden tonal style, was the main influence on a generation of tenor players that included Chu Berry, Charlie Barnet, Tex Beneke, Ben Webster, Vido Musso, Herschel Evans, Buddy Tate, and Don Byas, and through them the later tenormen, Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, Ike Quebec, Al Sears, Paul Gonsalves, and Lucky Thompson. While Hawkins became known with swing music during the big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.

Albums/Songs:

• Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins
• The Hawk Returns
• Blue Saxophones
• Fletcher Henderson and His Connie’s Inn Orchestra
• Sonny Meets Hawk!
• High and Mighty Hawk
• Back in Bean’s Bag
• At Ease With Coleman Hawkins
• Very Saxy
• The Hawk Swings
• The Hawk Relaxes
• Hawk Eyes
• Jazz Reunion
• The Gilded Hawk
• Blues Groove
• Desafinado
• Night Hawk
• Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster
• Soul
• Sir Charles Thompson and His Band Starring Coleman Hawkins
• The Genius of Coleman Hawkins
• Swingville: Coleman Hawkins With the Red Garland Trio
• Bluesey Burrell
• The Hawk Flies High
• Sittin’ In

Call to Action:

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