Product Description:
This release includes a bonus DVD featuring live performance footage.
Personnel include: Coleman Hawkins (saxophone); Don Redman (vocals, clarinet, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone); Eddie Condon (banjo); Pee Wee Russell (clarinet); Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro (trumpet); Glenn Miller (trombone); Fletcher Henderson, Hank Jones (piano); Gene Krupa, Max Roach (drums).
Recording information: 1929 - 1957.
There are numerous Coleman Hawkins compilations on the market, but THE CENTENNIAL COLLECTION encapsulates the span of Hawk's career (from 1929's hot- swing "Wherever There's a Will, Baby" to 1963's hard-bop duet with Sonny Rollins "Just Friends"), giving an excellent, condensed overview of the jazz legend's music. The disc represents Hawkins's stylistic blueprint for the modern use of the tenor sax, which is blazingly clear on early takes of "Hello Lola" and "Dinah." (Hawkins was arguably the first to establish a unique vocabulary and an utterly distinctive voice on the instrument.)
Moreover, Hawkins was a tirelessly imaginative player who constantly reinvented his own tunes, always searching for new ideas (he was one of the few swing players to adapt readily to bop), as one can hear on the rhythmically and harmonically advanced improvisations of 1956's "There'll Never Be Another You." Hawk is justifiably loved for his ballad playing, and THE CENTENNIAL COLLECTION includes stellar examples, particularly 1934's tone-perfect "Hocus Pocus" and his undisputed masterpiece--the '39 recording of "Body and Soul." Hearing the balance, beauty, and intensity of this tune is worth the price of admission alone. Fortunately, there are 19 other fine tracks, and a bonus DVD of archival footage to boot.
