Coleman Randolph Hawkins (
November 21 1904 –
May 19 1969) was an American
jazz tenor
saxophonist. Hawkins was the first important jazz musician to
use the instrument. As
Joachim
E. Berendt explained,
"there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was
not an acknowledged jazz horn". While Hawkins is most strongly
associated with the
swing music and
big band era, he had a role in the
development of
bebop in the 1940s,
Lester Young, who was called "Pres", in
a 1959 interview with
The Jazz
Review, said "As far as I'm concerned, I think Coleman
Hawkins was the President first, right? As far as myself, I think
I'm the second one."
Miles Davis once said: "When I heard Hawk I learned to play
ballads." Hawkins was
nicknamed "Hawk" and
sometimes "Bean".
Biography
Coleman Hawkins (incorrectly spelled
"Haskins" in the caption) pictured in the Topeka High School
orchestra, from the 1921 yearbook.
Early life and the Swing era
Hawkins was born in
Saint Joseph,
Missouri in 1904. Some out-of-date sources say 1901, but there
is no evidence to prove an earlier date. He was named Coleman after
his mother Cordelia's maiden name.
He
attended high school in Chicago
, then in
Topeka
, Kansas
at Topeka High School. He later stated that
he studied harmony and composition for two years at Washburn
College
in Topeka while still attending THS. In his
youth he played
piano and
cello, and started playing saxophone at the age of
nine; by the age of fourteen he was playing around eastern
Kansas.
Hawkins
joined Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds in
1921, who he toured with through 1923, when he settled in New York City
. Hawkins joined
Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, where he
remained until 1934, sometimes doubling on
clarinet and
bass
saxophone. Hawkins's playing changed significantly during
Louis Armstrong's tenure with the
Henderson Orchestra during 1924-25.
In 1934, Hawkins accepted an invitation to play with
Jack Hylton's band in London, and toured
Europe as a soloist until 1939, memorably
working with
Django Reinhardt and
Benny Carter in Paris in 1937. Having
returned to the United States, on October 11, 1939 he recorded a
two chorus performance of the pop standard "
Body and Soul", which he had been
performing at Kelly's Stables. A landmark recording of the Swing
Era, recorded as an afterthought at the session, it is notable in
that Hawkins ignores almost all of the melody, only the first four
bars are stated in a recognizable fashion. In its exploration of
harmonic structure it is considered by many to be the next
evolutionary step in jazz recording from where Louis Armstrong's
"
West End Blues" in 1928 left
off.
The Bebop era
After an
unsuccessful attempt to establish a big
band, he led a combo at Kelly's
Stables on Manhattan
's 52nd Street with
Thelonious Monk, Oscar Pettiford, Miles Davis, and Max
Roach as sidemen. He was leader on what is generally
considered the first ever
bebop recording
session with
Dizzy Gillespie and
Max Roach in 1944. Later he toured with
Howard McGhee and recorded with
J. J.
Johnson and
Fats Navarro. He also toured with
Jazz at the Philharmonic.
In 1948 Hawkins recorded
Picasso, an early piece for
unaccompanied saxophone.
After 1948 Hawkins divided his time between New York and Europe,
making numerous freelance recordings.
In the 1960s, he
appeared regularly at the Village
Vanguard in Manhattan.
Hawkins directly influenced many
bebop
performers, and later in his career, recorded or performed with
such adventurous musicians as
Sonny
Rollins, who considered him as his main influence, and
John Coltrane. He appears on the
Thelonious Monk with John
Coltrane (Riverside) record. In 1960 he recorded on Max
Roach's
We Insist!
- Freedom Now
suite.
Later life
He also performed with more traditional musicians, such as
Henry "Red" Allen and
Roy
Eldridge, with whom he appeared at the 1957
Newport Jazz Festival, and recorded
Coleman
Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster with fellow
tenor saxophonist Ben Webster on
December
16,
1957, along with
Oscar Peterson (piano),
Herb Ellis (guitar),
Ray Brown (bass), and
Alvin Stoller (drums). In the 1960s, he
recorded with
Duke Ellington.
What was up to date in jazz changed radically over the decades.
When record collectors would play his early 1920s recordings during
Hawkins's later years he would sometimes deny his presence on them,
since the playing on the old records sounded so dated.
In his later years, Hawkins began to drink heavily and stopped
recording (his last recording was in late 1966).
He died of pneumonia in 1969 and is interred at the Woodlawn
Cemetery
in the Bronx
.
A biography of Hawkins,
The Song of the Hawk (1990), was
written by British jazz historian
John
Chilton.
Discography
References
External links
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