Coleman Hawkins
From the fingertips that opened the door to bebop at the height of swing, the tenor saxophone became, for the first time, the protagonist of jazz.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
People in his circle ⏳🌊
- FamilyCordelia Coleman Hawkins
His mother, a music teacher, who taught her young son piano and cello.
- PatronMamie Smith
The first bandleader to set him on the path of a professional musician.
- ColleagueFletcher Henderson
The leader of the band in which he spent more than a decade, growing into a star soloist.
- ColleagueLouis Armstrong
Played alongside him in the Henderson band and gave a powerful spur to his phrasing.
- ColleagueDjango Reinhardt
Recorded with him in Paris in 1937, changing his view of European jazz.
- RivalryLester Young
Constantly compared for their contrasting tones, the two formed one of jazz history's great rivalries, yet held each other in deep respect.
I. The boy from St. Joseph · 1904–1921 (age 0–17)
(Birth) He was born in November 1904 in St. Joseph, Missouri. His father, William Hawkins, worked for a railroad company, and his mother, Cordelia Coleman, was a music teacher who taught organ and piano. (Mother) His mother taught her son piano when he was five, and at seven she put a cello in his hands. Hawkins later recalled that this early training in harmony was what shaped his ear. (Siblings) Few records of his brothers and sisters survive, but growing up under a mother who taught music, he seems to have lived in a house where instruments were always sounding. (Saxophone) He first picked up a saxophone at around nine. He began on the higher-pitched C-melody saxophone and gradually moved to the tenor, at a time when the tenor saxophone was not yet considered a solo instrument in jazz. (Formal education) He studied harmony and composition formally at Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas. In an era when most of his peers learned music by ear and on the street, such theoretical training was rare, and it later fed the judgment that his harmonic sense was unusually advanced. (First stage) As a teenager he played with local bands in clubs around Kansas City. With formal training and real stage experience overlapping, he built up early on a kind of confidence that set him apart from other adolescent players.
II. Mamie Smith and New York · 1921–1923 (age 17–19)
(Encounter) In 1921 he was hired as the tenor player in the Jazz Hounds, the band of blues singer Mamie Smith. At sixteen he left home and became a touring professional musician. (New York) He arrived in New York with Mamie Smith. Moving between Harlem and the Broadway theater district, he saw a big-city jazz scene for the first time, and the experience led to his resolve to settle in New York. (Early style) His playing in this period was still rough. His early style leaned heavily on slap tonguing, sliding from note to note, which also fit the custom of the day that treated the tenor saxophone as a rhythm instrument for filling in the background. (Livelihood) Touring bands did not pay well. At a young age he began supporting himself, and this may be seen as the origin of the unusual sensitivity he showed all his life to fees and contract terms. (Turning point) After leaving Mamie Smith's band, he made a name for himself in various New York sessions and soon caught the eye of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. He was not yet twenty.
III. The Fletcher Henderson years · 1923–1934 (age 19–30)
(Joining) In 1923 he joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. For more than a decade he was its star soloist, and he transformed the standing of the tenor saxophone in the history of jazz. (Change) In 1924 he played alongside Louis Armstrong, who spent several months with the Henderson band. Having heard Armstrong's supple, singing phrasing up close, he is said to have abandoned his slap-tongue style and moved toward a way of playing that held notes long and handled rhythm freely. (Star) In the Henderson band he gradually became the most popular soloist. His big, weighty tone and his improvisation (ad lib) that dug deep into the harmony made him a model for young saxophonists. (Money) The Henderson band was one of New York's finest Black dance orchestras, but its fees were lower than those of white bands. From this period on he was sensitive about money, which later led to his leading his own bands to secure a better share. (Rift) In 1934, after disputes over pay and treatment, he decided to leave the Henderson band. Just then the English bandleader Jack Hylton offered him a European tour, and he chose to cross the Atlantic.
A solo showing the peak of his artistry in the Henderson years, in which you can hear him absorbing Armstrong's influence and perfecting a language of his own.
- In the solo that follows the opening ensemble passage, a new manner of smoothly linking notes stands out in place of his earlier slap tonguing.
- While the rhythm section rides a lilting rhythmic feel (swing) that pushes and pulls against the beat, he unfolds an improvisation that probes every corner of the chord progression.
- Within the 32-bar form, the way he varies the theme differently in each chorus is fascinating.
- The interplay of the arrangement, with the brass and saxophone sections trading phrases, captures the polished sound of the Henderson band at the time.
IV. Five years in Europe · 1934–1939 (age 30–35)
(Crossing) In 1934 he went to Europe and appeared on the British stage with Jack Hylton's band. He had left America because of a pay dispute, but once there he is said to have felt he could breathe freely in an atmosphere less marked by racial segregation. (Paris) He then made Paris his base, touring France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia and playing with local bands. He learned enough French to give interviews without an interpreter, becoming an international figure rarely seen on the American jazz scene. (Django) In Paris in 1937 he recorded with Benny Carter, Django Reinhardt and others under the name “All Star Jam Band,” with Stéphane Grappelli on piano. Some accounts recall that he was skeptical of European jazz at first, but after encountering Reinhardt's harmonic sense he is said to have come to admire him sincerely. (Clouds of war) In 1939, as the shadow of war darkened over Europe, he decided to return to America. Five years in Europe left him with a mature, international outlook, and the man who returned to New York was a player of a different weight than before.
A recording with Reinhardt, whom he met in Paris, regarded as the moment American swing and European jazz met as equals.
- In an unusual lineup with four saxophones in the front line, it is worth listening to how Reinhardt's guitar supports the rhythm section.
- The saxophonists take solos in turn, and the contrast of their different tones stands out.
- Because it was a brief encounter, an improvised tension runs through the whole recording.
V. Body and Soul · 1939–1944 (age 35–40)
(Return) He returned to New York in 1939. Thanks to the reputation he had built in Europe, he was able to form a band under his own name, and that October, in a studio, he created a moment in jazz history with a single saxophone. (Body and Soul) On the recording of “Body and Soul” he all but abandoned the original melody and improvised, swimming freely over the harmony. The poise and self-assurance he had gained in Europe are said to be captured whole in the daring of this one track. (Big band) He led his own big band, but after the Depression the economics of big bands grew ever harder. When he could no longer bear the payroll, he went through a period of cutting down to a small combo. (Character) Colleagues remembered him offstage as quiet and courteous. Few records of his marriage and family life exist, apparently because he revealed almost nothing of his private life beyond music. The impassioned onstage face of “Hawk” and the private face of a reticent man who loved to read were sharply distinct.
All but abandoning the original melody and swimming freely over the harmony, this improvisation remains one of the most famous saxophone solos in jazz history.
- From the very first bar he lays a new melody, reinterpreting the harmony, in place of the original tune, and its daring is felt from the first hearing.
- Moving into the second chorus, he widens his range and stretches his phrases ever longer, building the climax of the whole piece.
- The rhythm section supports him only with restrained swing, never intruding on the space of the solo.
- Within a short running time of just over three minutes, its completeness, carried in a single breath from beginning to end, stands out.
VI. Building a bridge to bebop · 1944–1948 (age 40–44)
(Session) In 1944 he brought young players who were still nearly unknown into the studio to record. The session, featuring Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, Clyde Hart on piano and Max Roach on drums, is later counted as the first bebop recording. (Embrace) It was unusual for a star of the swing era to take young modernists under his wing. At a time when many swing-generation musicians found bebop alien or rejected it, he instead arranged studio time and recording opportunities for them. (Lester) His relationship with Lester Young in the same period has become a famous story in jazz history. Lester Young's soft, light tone and his own heavy, powerful tone were often compared, and when the two shared a stage, audiences enjoyed it like a duel. In reality, they are said to have deeply respected each other. (Solo) In 1948 he recorded “Picasso” on saxophone alone, without accompaniment. An unaccompanied solo was a very rare venture at the time, and it shows that rather than remaining merely a father of swing, he endlessly explored new forms.
A piece from the session often cited as the first bebop recording, capturing the moment a master of swing yielded the stage to young modernists.
- Over a new harmonic progression written by Dizzy Gillespie, his solo lays bare how a player of the swing generation adapts to unfamiliar chords.
- In the rhythm section, anchored by Clyde Hart's piano and Max Roach's drums, one can hear how early bebop accompaniment worked.
- Within a structure that runs from statement of the theme to solos to its return, it is fascinating to hear players of different generations sharing a single form.
- Even at a fast tempo, his precise, unwavering phrasing stands out.
Recorded by the saxophone alone, without accompaniment, this piece was radical for its day and was later rediscovered as a pioneering example of the unaccompanied solo tradition.
- At its heart is a technique of moving between low and high registers so that, with no accompaniment, he implies rhythm and harmony at the same time.
- Its structure is unusual, stretching and compressing the form freely rather than being bound to a fixed chord progression.
- Short phrases follow one another as if in conversation, so that it sounds like one man speaking in two voices.
- Though it drew little attention in its own time, it is regarded as a touchstone for later saxophonists' attempts at unaccompanied solos.
VII. The last chorus · 1949–1969 (age 45–65)
(On tour) Through the 1950s he kept performing busily, appearing on the Jazz at the Philharmonic stages organized by Norman Granz. Age did little to diminish the power of his playing, and critics judged many of his 1950s recordings to be the equal of his prime. (The Sound of Jazz) In 1957 he appeared with Lester Young on the television program “The Sound of Jazz,” the two of them laying solos side by side behind Billie Holiday's singing. Both men were already past their prime, but that brief moment is remembered as the last time two giants of the swing era stood together. (Decline) In the 1960s his health deteriorated visibly. He drank more and skipped meals more often, and his body grew noticeably thin; colleagues recalled that even on stage it had become hard to find his old vitality. (The end) He died in New York on May 19, 1969. He was sixty-four. Because he had created a place for the tenor saxophone where none had existed, every tenor player who followed had to find his own sound within his shadow.
Two giants already past their prime, he and Lester Young laying solos side by side behind Billie Holiday's singing — this scene is remembered as the swing era's final farewell.
- His thick, powerful tone and Lester Young's slender, gentle one follow each other in dramatic contrast.
- Placing feeling in each restrained note rather than in flashy technique, his playing is held to resonate even more deeply from a place past his prime.
- Given the nature of a live television taping, the plain, unadorned arrangement keeps the focus on the two men's solos.
- It is said that the glances he and Billie Holiday exchanged while Lester Young played his solo made this recording all the more famous.
An album that proved he still commanded peak playing in his later years; critics count it among his late masterpieces.
- Though he recorded alongside younger players, his solos show a presence that yields not an inch.
- Moving between 12-bar blues and 32-bar forms, it shows how supple his harmonic imagination was across a range of structures.
- In his rapport with the rhythm section one feels the relaxed swing peculiar to a seasoned player.
- The weight of a tone built up over long years creates a persuasiveness of a different kind from that of his youth.
Lesser-known stories
Few people know that the instrument Hawkins clung to like a first love was not the saxophone but the cello. Taught the cello by his mother at the age of seven, he dreamed for a time of becoming a classical cellist, and the saxophone was in fact an instrument he took up later. This background, a clue to why he was so unusually fluent in harmony, is mentioned often only among his biographers. Less well known, too, is that it was Hawkins himself who actually organized the so-called first bebop session, held in New York in 1944, and secured the studio time. Because the session came to be remembered more often under the names of young players such as Dizzy Gillespie, the fact that Hawkins — already a star of the swing era — acted as its patron was pushed to the margins of jazz history. Having spent several years in Europe, he is said to have learned fluent French and given interviews to the local press without an interpreter. On stage, true to his nickname “Hawk,” he unleashed a fierce, powerful tone, but numerous memoirs preserve colleagues' testimony that off stage he was a quiet gentleman who loved books and spoke sparingly. His 1948 unaccompanied solo “Picasso” drew almost no attention when it was released. The very form of improvisation without accompaniment was simply too unfamiliar, and it was only much later that the experiment was rediscovered as a precedent for later saxophonists' tradition of unaccompanied solos.
Glossary notes 📚🔎
Swing
(In jazz) Swing means playing the back part of the beat slightly late, pushing and pulling, to create a distinctive rocking sense of rhythm. Think of riding a hammock: you lag a little behind the exact beat, then catch up again. (Elsewhere) Swing can also mean a playground swing, or the motion of swinging a bat in baseball.
Bebop
(The word) The name bebop is said to imitate the sound “be-bop” made by a drum's strong accents or by scat singing. (In jazz) A jazz style that emerged in the 1940s, marked by fast, complex harmony and rhythm. Unlike swing, which played a set melody as if singing it, bebop breaks down each chord in fine detail to create new melodic lines. It is like solving the same word puzzle again under far faster and more complicated rules.
Chorus
(In jazz) A chorus is the unit of playing a song's or tune's entire form once, from beginning to end. Improvisers usually repeat the same chorus many times, laying a different improvisation over it each time. Much as a round circles the same tune again and again, the fun lies in giving each chorus a different color. (Elsewhere) Chorus also refers to a choir or to the repeated part of a song (the refrain).
Tension note
(The word) Tension is the English word for strain; the name comes from adding notes the chord does not strictly need, creating a slightly unstable tension. (In jazz) It means stacking notes such as the 9th, 11th or 13th on top of a basic chord to give the sound an unusual tension and color. It is like adding new toppings on top of a cake's basic frosting to make the flavor more complex.
Head-solo-head
(In jazz) The basic structure of jazz: the tune's theme (the head) is played first, then each player in turn improvises (solos) over its harmony, and finally everyone returns to the opening theme to close. Think of it as a journey whose beginning and end are the same, but in the middle each traveler sets off on a different adventure.
Improvisation
(The word) Jeukheung (即興) — 'inspiration on the spot' — means that inspiration (興) arises at once (即), right there, and one acts on it; the idea of playing whatever comes to mind in the moment, without planning ahead, is already contained in the name. (In jazz) It means a player creating fresh melodic lines as they come to mind in the moment, within the larger framework of a set harmonic progression. It resembles the impromptu speaking exercise in language class, where you make up a story on the spot from a handful of given words.