LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

One of the first great masters of the tenor sax, Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969) began playing sax when the instrument was still in its infancy and not yet considered a “serious musician’s” instrument. But Hawkins soon changed all this, permanently bringing the instrument into the jazz musician’s realm. During his four decade prime (1925-1965), he set the pace among tenors and was considered a major influence on everyone from Ben Webster to Sonny Rollins and Archie Shepp. Following jazz from its humble beginnings to its heyday Hawkins recorded with Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Max Roach and Eric Dolphy (to name a few). This album, recorded in NYC in 1958, finds Hawkins in his prime and features some of his own compositions as well as classic arrangements by Billy Ver Planck.