Search - Coleman Hawkins :: Bebop Years

Great overview of his early prime years

kfer | Redmond, WA USA | 01/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I would recommend this for anyone wanting to get an overview of Hawk's playing from his early prime years. His playing reached a peak in '38 and as far as I can tell pretty much stayed there until his death in the '60s. This contains his legendary recording 'Body and Soul' from '38 and goes to '49.



For comparison I would recommend also getting "The Lester Young Story" also a great 4CD set from Proper covering the same time period."

Nobody ....

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 06/09/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"... epitomizes the history of jazz better than Coleman Hawkins, from raggedy blues/vaudeville to bebop and a little beyond. Born in 1904, Hawkins jumped school in Kansas City in 1922 to join Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds on tour to Chicago. Through the late 20s and early 30s, Hawkins was the boss tenor sax in the very popular Fletcher Henderson swing band. Then he spent some five years in Europe, building an enormous popularity for himself there as well as a fervent audience for jazz that has endured to our own times. In 1939, he returned more or less permanently to the USA, and that's where this four-CD survey of his recordings during "The Bebop Years" begins.



Coleman had been a highly reputed journeyman jazzman for two decades when the first track in this box set, Body and Soul, was recorded by RCA in October, 1939. The final track on the fourth disk, Bah-U-Bah, was recorded in Paris, rehearsing for a European tour, in December, 1949. So "The Bebop Years" is not only a compendium of the Hawk's finest sessions -- 88 of them -- over a ten-year period, but also a survey of the evolution of jazz from a "high-toned low-class popular" music to the artistic heights that Hawkins shared with Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Monk, Gillespie, Gordon, and other progressive beboppers. The sax was, of course, the master instrument of the era, and it was Hawkins who first proved what the sax could offer. Hawkins had incredible chops, a rich rolling tone especially in his lower register on ballads, and it was on ballads that he sounded most harmonically adventuresome and original. But Hawk never totally abandoned his swing-era roots. He could play 'hot' or 'sweet' but 'cool' was not in him, and the 50's became a decade of neglect and disappointment for him. Unlike some younger beboppers, nevertheless, Hawkins was robust even to enjoy a revival in the late 50s and early 60s. But the 'avant-garde' of free jazz held no appeal for him. To put it bluntly, he gave up and drank himself to death at age 66 in 1969. The superb film "Round Midnight", starring Dexter Gordon and directed by Bernard Tavernier, depicts the last years of a musician who might well have been Coleman Hawkins.



The remastering of the assorted sessions, some in studios and some live, in this Properbox is extraordinarily clear and realistic. This is a fantastic bargain, a must-have for jazz lovers."

One major omission

JG | Long Island | 07/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I know I am being picky but there is one MAJOR omission. The session with

trumpeter Fats Navarro that produced the great Half Step Down Please.

Otherwise this is a wonderful collection of a more modern sounding Hawkins. At least they have the Dizzy stuff. Rember Hawkins was on the first bebop recordings and I also believe Monks first session."