Ken Burns Jazz Collection

by Coleman Hawkins

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone, clarinet); Abbey Lincoln (vocals); Benny Carter, Phil Woods, Johnny Hodges (alto saxophone); Don Byas, Ben Webster, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Rouse (tenor saxophone); Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Howard McGhee, Booker Little (trumpet); Ray Nance (cornet); Glenn Miller, J.J. Johnson, Julian Priester (trombone); Pee Wee Russell (clarinet); Fletcher Henderson, Teddy Wilson, Hank Jones, Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk, Paul Bley, Duke Ellington (piano); Django Reinhardt, Herb Ellis (guitar); John Kirby, Oscar Pettiford, Ray Brown, Jimmy Garrison (bass); Max Roach (drums, percussion); Gene Krupa, Shelly Manne, Cozy Cole, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Jo Jones (drums).

Compilation producers: Ben Young, Richard Seidel.

Recorded between 1926 and 1963. Includes liner notes by Carl Woideck.

Digitally remastered by Kevin Reeves (Universal Mastering Studios-East).

This is part of the Verve Records Ken Burns JAZZ series.

Coleman Hawkins was the man who put the tenor saxophone on the jazz map. Though the great Bud Freeman had preceded him, Hawkins' big, bold, and affectionately rough tone set the standard for jazz saxophone styles for decades to come, influencing players from the swing era to bebop and beyond. This collection is a superb, wide-ranging summary of Hawkins' career.

This set kicks off with "The Stampede" from 1926, a Fletcher Henderson tune that heralded the swing sound that would soon take the jazz world by storm. "Body and Soul" was and is Hawkins' best-known (and loved) tune. In a sublime example of jazz ballad playing, here Hawkins adapts a well-known pop tune and makes it his own. Hawkins was also one of the first swing era giants to take to bebop, playing and recording with bop icons Dizzy Gillespie ("Woody 'N' You"), Thelonious Monk ("Ruby, My Dear"), and Sonny Rollins ("Just Friends"). Later collaborations with Duke Ellington ("Self Portrait"), and Max Roach ("Driva Man"), prove that Hawkins still had the right stuff in the 1960s.