With all due respect for Adolph Sax and Rudy Wiedoeft, Coleman Hawkins could be said to have designed, defined, and refined the saxophone as a jazz horn. Others did their best with the instrument during the early '20s, but it was Hawkins who mastered it and became the first dignified improvising saxophone virtuoso in jazz. Living Era's Body and Soul of the Saxophone compilation should be the first choice for anyone seeking to understand the role Hawkins played in the evolution of jazz during the first half of the 20th ...
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With all due respect for Adolph Sax and Rudy Wiedoeft, Coleman Hawkins could be said to have designed, defined, and refined the saxophone as a jazz horn. Others did their best with the instrument during the early '20s, but it was Hawkins who mastered it and became the first dignified improvising saxophone virtuoso in jazz. Living Era's Body and Soul of the Saxophone compilation should be the first choice for anyone seeking to understand the role Hawkins played in the evolution of jazz during the first half of the 20th century. After opening with his famous set of variations on "Body and Soul" recorded in 1939 (a beautiful improvisation that Hawk always swore was "nothing special"), this excellent portrait album traces the saxophonist's progress as a member of the Mound City Blue Blowers in 1929 and as star soloist with Fletcher Henderson during the early '30s and briefly documents his adventures in the company of ace trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen with Horace Henderson, Spike Hughes, and the band that Hawkins and Allen led together in 1933. This particular retrospective does not include Hawkins' remarkable European recordings from the mid-'30s; these may be found on Living Era's outstanding compilation The Hawk in Europe. Returning from his travels abroad, Hawkins observed that jazz was evolving more slowly than he had expected and responded by positioning himself at the cutting edge of new musical developments. Various recordings made with Lionel Hampton, Benny Carter, John Kirby, Cootie Williams, Art Tatum, and Oscar Pettiford illustrate Hawkins' central position in jazz during the late '30s and early '40s. A boppish 1945 recording of "Stuffy" with Pettiford, Howard McGhee, and Sir Charles Thompson serves as a premonition of still more modern developments, even as Hawk's harmonically advanced "Queer Notions" had startled the jazz world in 1933. This outstanding album of vintage jazz masterworks closes with a gorgeous rendition of "Say It Isn't So" and an unaccompanied saxophone improvisation named after Pablo Picasso. This album is a superb portrait of Coleman Hawkins, highly recommended for listeners of all persuasions. ~ arwulf arwulf, Rovi
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