Coleman Hawkins ~ Brussels, 1962

[Jazzrook]

A remarkable unaccompanied tenor saxophone solo by Coleman Hawkins in Brussels in 1962. I think the piece was titled 'Dali':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLRTi6MhsTo

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

A remarkable unaccompanied tenor saxophone solo by Coleman Hawkins in Brussels in 1962. I think the piece was titled 'Dali':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLRTi6MhsTo

JR

Possibly, though there's some unaccompanied Hawk playing a number titled "Picasso" as early as 1947, which I believe is the earliest recorded unaccompained sax.

[Ian Thumwood]

The unaccompanied solo sounds like it is based on the changes of a standard but it is difficult to ascertain without a harmony instrument.

The weird thing about this broadcast is that the solo performance seems amazingly contemporary but the addition of the quartet to back Hawkins makes the session revert to a pretty progressive mainstream date. I have a lot of respect for Coleman Hawkins insofar that it was through listening to his playing which opened my ears to starting to understand jazz better when I was discovering the music. His is in danger of becoming a bit of a forgotten figure these days but I think his approach has actually stood the test of time better than the more fashionable Lester Young - another player whose music I love. There are so many players around today like David Murray and Branford Marsalis who dig back in to players like Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster. I think Hawkins was great insofar that he was relevant for so long and equally happy jamming with the likes of Sonny Rollins and Paul Bley as well as his own contemporaries.

There was a story I heard that , after his sojourn in Europe in the 1930s, Hawkins returned to the States in 1939 and was shocked that the tenor had not evolved in the period in which he was away. I think that is probably an exaggeration albeit Hawkins would have been aware of players like Lester Young and Chu Berry before he departed in 1934. Although I think that the developments in Kansas City in the early 1930s incubated the ideas that eventually evolved in to Be-bop, especially with regard to modernising rhythm , Coleman Hawkins was amongst an "elite" including art Tatum and Red Allen who could already hear the wider harmonic implications in jazz in the early 1930's. There would be no Rollins or Coltrane without the pioneering work by Coleman Hawkins who was still sounding pretty good in 1962. Thanks for posting, Jazrook. I have really enjoyed listening to this gig.