Coleman Hawkins – Coleman Hawkins and Confreres

In the company of colleagues

“Confrères” means colleagues or fellow members of a profession. It is an appropriate title for an album that places Coleman Hawkins among musicians from Norman Granz’s circle. Two recording dates on opposite coasts provide the setting: Los Angeles in October 1957 and New York in February 1958. This is therefore an album built from more than one ensemble, rather than a document of a single band throughout.

The West Coast personnel includes Ben Webster, Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Alvin Stoller alongside Hawkins. Roy Eldridge, Hank Jones, George Duvivier and Mickey Sheen participate in the New York session. Granz produced both encounters. The leader’s tenor connects the different groups while leaving the backgrounds and musical identities of his partners an important part of the story.

The leader also supplies the tunes

Hawkins wrote four of the five selections included here: “Maria,” “Hanid,” “Honey Flower” and “Nabob.” The remaining piece is the standard “Sunday.” His role as a composer is consequently central to the programme. For listeners who associate him chiefly with his famous 1939 recording of “Body and Soul,” this collection offers another route into the material he chose to develop.

The two sides have distinct proportions. “Maria,” “Sunday” and “Hanid” occupy side A, while side B is devoted to “Honey Flower” and “Nabob.” Those longer performances run for almost nine and just over nine minutes respectively. They allow time to follow a theme through successive contributions rather than treating each solo as a separate event. Listen especially to the handovers: what does the next player retain, where does a new idea begin, and how does the accompaniment help make the transition?

A tenor voice with a long history

Hawkins was one of the musicians who established the tenor saxophone as an independent voice in jazz. His years with Fletcher Henderson, his European experiences and his openness to younger players form the background to these meetings. Ben Webster was himself among the tenorists for whom Hawkins provided an important point of reference. Their presence brings different paths through jazz history into the same album.

On a return visit, try listening to the ends of phrases. A note can be sustained, clipped or carried directly into the next thought; such decisions can tell you more than the duration of a solo. The changing personnel also invites attention to the relationships between tenor, piano, guitar and trumpet. The title promises company, and tracing the individual voices within that company gives the programme its particular interest.

The five-track vinyl edition

AVER 77260 is a single 180-gram stereo LP at 33⅓ RPM, pressed at Quality Record Pressings and housed in a Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket. Matthew Lutthans mastered it at The Mastering Lab; Acoustic Sounds identifies the original analogue master tape as the source. “Cocktails for Two” is not included on this edition. The five selections described above follow the published track list for this LP, rather than the expanded programmes associated with other versions.

Michael 45 stores the goods in Germany and ships from Hilden, allowing customers in Germany and the EU to avoid a personal US import and the corresponding customs wait.

More from the series: Verve (Acoustic Sounds Series)

More by Coleman Hawkins: Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster

Series: Verve – all 34 records: voices, organ and bossa nova

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.