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Coleman Hawkins was a m***** f*****


Chuck Nessa

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Geez...I loves me some Coleman Hawkins, and am always looking for a new issue.

Anybody want to pull my coat?

Not a "new" release, but one that's somewhat uncommon: Coleman Hawkins at the Golden Circle 1963 (Dragon).

Hawk is in fine form, sounding relaxed and comfortable (that may not always be a good thing, but it is in this case). He plays a wonderful 2 1/2 minute unaccompanied solo at the beginning of "If I Had You". The four tracks recorded on the first night of the date are some of my favorite Coleman Hawkins. Three tracks from 1950 and 1954 are added to the 1963 recordings.

You may already know this music, but I thought I'd mention it, just in case.

This sounds good; I ordered it; thanks.

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Don't know what form, if any, they're available now, but the four performances ("All the Things You Are," "Centerpiece," "Body and Soul," and "Just You, Just Me") that Hawkins played in Chicago at the Playboy Jazz Festival on Aug. 9, 1959, with Eddie Higgins, Bob Cranshaw, and Walter Perkins, are sublime and very intense. I have them on an LP, Spotlite 137.

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Yep, I have the same LP. Great set(s)

I remember reading a interview with Eddie Higgins about that set.

He said he never met Hawkins before and that there was a hardly a word said before the performance.

Coleman-Hawkins-Blowin-Up-A-Breez-529144.jpg

All The Things You Are

Centrepiece

Body And Soul

Just You, Just Me

The Way You Look Tonight

I Can't Get Started

Moonglow

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even though he's SO great - I reckon he's also one of the most accessible jazz players for the uninitiated - I mean, if I had to recommend something to someone interested in exploring jazz for the first time I might show them that movie. If they didn't like Coleman Hawkins, It'd be a hard sell. swinging, edgy, sexy, cool... I can remember the first time I really noticed him, on 'Monk's Music' - coming in after the drum solo on one of the early tunes - like somebody starting to speak in short utterances that then build together - it blew me away

..I guess he was the one where it really clicked and I got what was so important about an individual's tone and voice.

Edited by cih
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I reckon he's also one of the most accessible jazz players for the uninitiated

Really? I'd reckon him to be one of the more difficult. Relative to anything "modern" of the last 60 years or so, his tone is so hard, and his time is so "non-swinging"...I know I appreciated him long before I really dug him.

But now, hell yeah!

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well, really for me anyway... probably my own listening is sufficiently superficial to not notice why I shouldn't have got him! :rolleyes: I wish I could really describe what he sounds like to me - kind of heavy but hanging, and like thick oil or something. and yeah - now listening, right about the non-swinging time - except sometimes - 'On The Sunny Side Of the Street'

Relative to anything "modern" of the last 60 years or so

actually, that'll be it I expect - most of my listening is pre-war blues & stuff

Edited by cih
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seriously though - is there a way of not enjoying that video, even for the layman? Also, he is swinging on that isn't he? if not then I need to get a better definition of swing (I mean this sincerely btw) he sounds sort of 'sticky' but still propels it along (to my ears)

edit - ok forget 'on the Sunny Side of the Street' (above) :blink: I must have been listening to the wrong record - I think it was Dorothy Fields on her penny whistle

edit edit - the layman doesn't like it - or claims not to

Edited by cih
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I'm much with Sangrey here... there's some Hawk that I dug right away, that went straight to the guts. But then there's plenty that took some detours through the brain, stuff the impressed me mightily from the git-go, but that took a while to sink in and be dug on a straight, emotional level. Then there's some stuff where the rhythmic stiffness (well, on the surface at least) puts me off somewhat and makes it difficult to dig in. But he definitely was an MF! And as if any more proof was needed, there's that Spotlite LP cover! WOW! I NEED THAT ONE, NOW!!! Got to look for it, that's for sure!

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I suspect I've been listening mostly to the Hawkins of a different era - I recognise what you guys are saying completely... but things from late thirties - 'Dinah'(1939), even up to something like 'Lover Come Back to me' from 1943 sound very swinging (the last one has some hints of the more difficult timing). But then from the same session as the latter there's 'Sweet Lorraine' which sounds very different already (more modern).

I still think that the Coleman Hawkins of this era at least must be very easy to like. This quote from John Chilton kind of sums up what I hear: "There was something about Hawkins' playing and his stage presence that transcended the barriers that exist between an esoteric jazz artist and lay listeners. He made no effort to adjust his style and played undiluted jazz, yet he did so with such skill and fervour that he won over almost every audience". - (however that did relate to a mid thirties tour of Britain...)

Edited by cih
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True, cih - I started out with 50s and 60s albums... the ones I got right away include "Hawkins Encounters Webster" (the very first one I heard of either of them, when I was what... 13?), the one I still don't just enjoy on an emotional level is "The Genius of". The Impulse quartet album is another mighty fine one, but I don't just get it on any given day.

Btw, I was in the movies tonight and they had Hawk on before... a wonderful version of "Carioca", which I just saw is on that "Body and Soul Revisited" GRP disc... I see that one's not part of the Mosaic, guess I ought to get it!

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Don't know what form, if any, they're available now, but the four performances ("All the Things You Are," "Centerpiece," "Body and Soul," and "Just You, Just Me") that Hawkins played in Chicago at the Playboy Jazz Festival on Aug. 9, 1959, with Eddie Higgins, Bob Cranshaw, and Walter Perkins, are sublime and very intense. I have them on an LP, Spotlite 137.

Happened to find and buy that one - side one is spinning right now, and it's intense indeed!

Thanks for this great recommendation!

And I absolutely love the cover photo! Wow!

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Wow! Marvellous!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvly0fel4cY

Same JATP concert with Benny Carter added, I assume?

Btw, if this is from the same night as "Jazz at the Philharmonic in London, 1969", it's seems to be doubtful that the date is correct.

It is questioned in Teddy Doerings biography of Hawkins (german language), the LP is listed following "Supreme" (Enja, rec. Left Bank Jazz Socity 65-09-25) and preceeding "Sirius" (Pablo, rec. 66-12-20).

Makes more sense, but then I really don't know...

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  • 2 months later...

Actually(?) from 1969..about as late as it gets...

Wow! Marvellous!

Btw, if this is from the same night as "Jazz at the Philharmonic in London, 1969", it's seems to be doubtful that the date is correct.

Yes, Lord lists this as being from Royal Festival Hall, London, November 26, 1966. I have compared and it is the same performance. When this was released on Pablo, the date was erroneously given as March 1969, which apparently is why one of the YouTube video commenters gives that date.

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