Hawkins Coleman, known as Bean, Hawk, *21 November 1904, Saint Joseph (Missouri), †19 May 1969, New York, American jazz saxophonist (tenor). From the age of five, he took piano and cello lessons; at the age of nine, he began playing the tenor saxophone. In 1921, after three years of study at Washburn College in Topeka, he began collaborating with the ensemble of vocalist M. Smith; with this group, he made his first recording the following year. From 1924, he played in F. Henderson’s orchestra, gaining great popularity as one of the band’s leading soloists. In 1934, at the height of his fame, he left the band and went to England. He remained in Europe until 1939, performing (in France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, among other places) and recording with both American (such as B. Carter) and European musicians (J. Hylton, D. Reinhardt, S. Grappelli, A. Ekyan, and The Ramblers). In July 1939, he returned to New York, where he worked with his own nine-piece band; it was then that Hawkins’ most famous recording, Body and Soul, was made. In the 1940s, after the band broke up, he led various combos, collaborating with T. Monk, F. Navarro, M. Jackson, M. Roach, among others. In 1946, he joined N. Granz’s band Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP), with which he performed in many countries around the world. From that moment on, he was not permanently associated with any group, recording albums with both older generation musicians and innovators of the 1940s and 1950s.
Hawkins is now considered one of the most outstanding musicians in the history of jazz. By gradually discovering and exploiting new, previously unknown possibilities of the tenor saxophone, he made it a strictly jazz instrument (in the early 1920s, saxophones, apart from S. Bechet’s soprano, did not play a major role in jazz). His playing is characterized by a strong, rich tone with expressive vibrato, spontaneity and lyricism, technical proficiency, an exceptional sense of harmony, and improvisational talent.
Hawkins’ individual style was shaped in Henderson’s orchestra. In the early years of his collaboration with this band, he was still influenced by New Orleans jazz. The turning point came with the recording of Stampede (1926), in which Hawkins’ elaborate solo, characterized by a freer rhythm and a more aggressive tone, deserves special attention. There is also a predilection for playing arpeggios, which over time would become one of the characteristic features of his style. In recordings from the second half of the 1920s (Clarinet Marmalade – 1926, Whiteman Stomp – 1927, King Porter Stomp – 1928), more advanced harmony is noticeable, phrases gain coherence, and the staccato manner is now replaced by legato. The peak of this phase in Hawkins’ stylistic evolution can be considered Hello Lola and One Hour (1929), recorded with a studio group under the direction of R. McKenzie; the latter of these pieces marked the beginning of a series of masterful ballad interpretations by the saxophonist.
The greatest proof of his talent, however, Hawkins gave in Body and Soul; at the beginning, he paraphrases the theme and then, based on its harmonic structure, creates a series of variations, using almost all the melodic possibilities and potential inherent in individual chords. The theme itself – apart from minor motivic references – is never exposed in its original form. Hawkins developed many variations of this composition, while retaining the improvisational pattern of the original version. In 1947, he recorded Picasso, a solo improvisation based on the harmonic plan of Body and Soul (J.E. Berendt even saw certain similarities with Chaconne from Bach’s Partita in D minor). The improvisational style presented by Hawkins in Body and Soul became a long-standing model for many other musicians. In the early 1940s, he developed an aggressive playing style with a strong rhythmic attack, as exemplified by the recordings Dinah and The Sheik of Araby (1940). His achievements stem from tradition. He started with blues and New Orleans jazz, was one of the few African-American musicians to play with representatives of the Chicago style, and although he is rightly considered the leading virtuoso of the swing era, he was one of the first artists of the older generation to assimilate the achievements of modern jazz – the album Woody’n You (1944), recorded by Hawkins together with the pioneers of the new school (including M. Roach and D. Gillespie), is considered the first bebop recording. His style had a strong influence on other tenor saxophonists, especially B. Webster, C. Berry, D. Byas, I. Jacquet, F. Phillips, C. Ventura; the line of development in tenor saxophone playing that began with Hawkins extends all the way to the free jazz experimenters of the 1970s, including A. Shepp. In a certain opposition to Hawkins’ emotional style, a less expressive but more modern direction developed, led by L. Young.
Literature: A. McCarthy Coleman Hawkins, London 1963; G. Schuller Early Jazz, New York 1968; J.E. Berendt Das Jazzbuch. Von Rag bis Rock, Frankfurt am Main 1973, Polish ed. Od raga do rocka – wszystko o jazzie, transl. S. Haraschin, I. Panek, W. Panek, Krakow 1979; A. McCarthy Big Band Jazz, London 1974.
