Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. One of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument, as Joachim E. Berendt explained: "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn". Hawkins biographer John Chilton described the prevalent styles of tenor saxophone solos prior to Hawkins as "mooing" and "rubbery belches." Hawkins cited as influences Happy Caldwell, Stump Evans, and Prince Robinson, although he was the first to tailor his method of improvisation to the saxophone rather than imitate the techniques of the clarinet. Hawkins' virtuosic, arpeggiated approach to improvisation, with his characteristic rich, emotional, and vibrato-laden tonal style, was the main influence on a generation of tenor players that included Chu Berry, Charlie Barnet, Tex Beneke, Ben Webster, Vido Musso, Herschel Evans, Buddy Tate, and Don Byas, and through them the later tenormen, Arnett Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, Flip Phillips, Ike Quebec, Al Sears, Paul Gonsalves, and Lucky Thompson. While Hawkins became known with swing music during the big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.
Links to Peel[]
Peel would certainly have known of Coleman Hawkins' music from the jazz magazines he read in his youth, and from the BBC programmes of Humphrey Lyttelton and Peter Clayton. Although a legandary figure in jazz history, Hawkins was of an older generation of musicians than those in whom Peel took an interest in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
In later decades, JP played some tunes from the musician on his shows and choose the track, Rifftide, as one of the songs for the Peelenium 1945. He also choose Coleman Hawkins', 'Meet Doctor Foo' for his Pig's Big 78 and liked it enough to play it three times.
Shows Played[]
- 1984
- 25 September 1984: Blue Light (LP – The Hawk Flies High) Riverside
- 1989
- 16 January 1989: Stardust (v/a album - Django Reinhardt - 1910-1953) EMI France
- 1990
- 13 February 1990: Bean-A-Re-Bop (CD album - Hollywood Stampede) Capitol Jazz
- 1996
- 28 April 1996: ‘It’s The Talk Of The Town’ (CD – In The Groove 1926 – 1939 )’ Indigo
- 02 September 1999: Rifftide (Peelenium 1945)
- 2001
- 17 May 2001: Meet Doctor Foo (Pig's Big 78)
- 02 October 2001: Meet Dr Foo (Pig's Big 78)
- 2002
- 02 July 2002: 'Meet Dr Foo' (His Master's Voice) (Pig's Big 78)