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Donald Matthew Redman (July 29, 1900 – November 30, 1964) was an American jazz musician, arranger, bandleader and composer.

Redman was announced as a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame on May 6, 2009.^[1]

Redman was born in Piedmont, West Virginia. His father was a music teacher, his mother was a singer. Don began playing the trumpet at the age of 3, joined his first band at 6 and by age 12 he was proficient on all wind instruments ranging from trumpet to oboe as well as piano. He studied at Storer's College in Harper's Ferry and at the Boston Conservatory, then joined Billy Page's Broadway Syncopaters in New York City. (He was the uncle of saxophonist Dewey Redman, and thus great-uncle of saxophonist Joshua Redman and trumpeter Carlos Redman.) ^[2]

Career[link]

In 1923 Don Redman joined the Fletcher Henderson orchestra, mostly playing clarinet and saxophones.^[3] He soon began writing arrangements, and Redman did much to formulate the sound that was to become big band Swing. (It is significant to note that with a few exceptions, Henderson did not start arranging until the mid-1930s. Redman did the bulk of arrangements (through 1927) and after he left, Benny Carter took over arranging for the Henderson band.)

His importance in the formulation of arranged hot jazz can not be overstated; a chief trademark of Redman's arrangements was that he harmonized melody lines and pseudo-solos within separate sections; for example, clarinet, sax, or brass trios. He played these sections off each other, having one section punctuate the figures of another, or moving the melody around different orchestral sections and soloists. His use of this technique was sophisticated, highly innovative, and formed the basis of much big band jazz writing in the following decades.

In 1927 Jean Goldkette convinced Redman to join the Detroit, Michigan-based band McKinney's Cotton Pickers as their musical director and leader. He was responsible for their great success and arranged over half of their music (splitting the arranging duties with John Nesbitt through 1931). Redman was occasionally featured as their vocalist, displaying a charming, humorous vocal style.

Don Redman and his Orchestra[link]

Redman then formed his own band in 1931^[3] (featuring, for a time, Fletcher Henderson's younger brother Horace on piano), which got a residency at the famous Manhattan jazz club Connie's Inn. Redman's band got a recording contract with Brunswick Records and a series of radio broadcasts. Redman and his orchestra also provided music for the animated short I Heard, part of the Betty Boop series produced by Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount. Redman composed original music for the short, which was released on September 1, 1933.

The Brunswick records Redman made between 1931-1934 were some of the most complex pre-swing hot jazz arrangements of popular tunes. Redman's band didn't rely on just a driving rhythm or great soloists, but it had an overall level of arranging sophistication that's unlike anyone else of the period.

Notable musicians in Redman's band included Sidney De Paris, trumpet, Edward Inge, clarinet, and singer Harlan Lattimore, who was known as "The Colored Bing Crosby". On the side Redman also did arrangements for other band leaders and musicians, including Paul Whiteman, Isham Jones, and Bing Crosby.

In 1933, his band made a Vitaphone short film for Warner Bros. which is available as of 2006 on the DVD of the Busby Berkeley feature film Dames.

Redman recorded for Brunswick through 1934. He did a number of sides for ARC in 1936 (issued on their Vocalion, Perfect, Melotone, etc.) and in 1937, he pioneered a series of swing re-arrangements of old classic pop tunes for the Variety label. His use of a swinging vocal group (called "The Swing Choir") was very modern and even today, a bit usual, with Redman's sophisticated counter-point melodies. He signed with Bluebird in 1938 and recorded with them until 1940, when he disbanded.

In 1940 Redman disbanded his orchestra, and concentrated on freelance work writing arrangements. Some of his arrangements became hits for Jimmy Dorsey, Count Basie, and Harry James. He appeared on Uptown Jubilee on the CBS Television network for the 1949 season. In the 1950s he was music director for singer Pearl Bailey.

In the early 1960s he played piano for the Georgia Minstrels Concert and soprano sax with Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle's band.

Don Redman died in New York City on November 30, 1964.

Discography (CD)[link]

• with Fletcher Henderson:
  • Wrappin' It Up (2005) (Membran)
  • Sweet and Hot (2007) (Le Chant du Monde)
• with McKinney's Cotton Pickers:
  • 1931-1933 (1990) (Classics)
  • 1933-1936 (1991) (Classics)
  • 1936-1939 (1994) (Classics)
  • Doin' the New Lowdown (1994) (Hep Records 1004)^[4]
• as leader:
  • Doin' What I Please (1994) (ASV/Living Era)
• appearing on:
  • 1930s Big Band anthology (1990) (Columbia Records)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Don Redman at redhotjazz.com

See also[link]

• Arrangement
• Swing music

Carroll Gibbons (January 4, 1903 - May 10, 1954) was an American-born musician, bandleader and composer who made his career primarily in England during the British dance band era.

Early life and career[link]

He was born and raised in Clinton, Massachusetts. In his late teens he travelled to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1924 he returned to London with the brassless Boston Orchestra for an engagement at the Savoy Hotel in the Strand. He liked Britain so much that he settled there and later became the co-leader (with Howie Jacobs) of the Savoy Orpheans and the bandleader of the New MayFair Orchestra, which recorded for the Gramophone Company on the HMV label. In 1929 Gibbons appeared in the British film Splinters (as Carroll Gibbons and His Masters Voice Orchestra).

The 1930s[link]

Gibbons made occasional return trips to the United States but settled permanently in England, though he did spend a couple of years (1930–1931) in Hollywood, where he worked as a staff composer for MGM films. He took exclusive leadership of the Savoy Hotel Orpheans, which recorded hundreds of popular songs (many of which were sung by Anne Lenner) between June 1932 and his death in 1954.

As a composer, Gibbons's most popular songs included "A Garden in the Rain" (1928) and "On The Air" (1932). The latter was covered by Rudy Vallee in 1933 and by Lud Gluskin in 1936. Gibbons' instrumental numbers "Bubbling Over" and "Moonbeam Dance" were also quite successful in the United Kingdom. Gibbons had a weekly show on Radio Luxembourg in the 1930s, sponsored by Hartley's Jam.

Death[link]

Carroll Gibbons died in London at the early age of 51. He is one of several famous musicians buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, England. He was buried near the chapel in plot 124.

External links[link]

Biography portal

• *"Internet Archive Search: Carroll Gibbons - archive.org (multimedia content in the public domain)". http://archive.org/search.php?query=%22Carroll%20Gibbons%22. Retrieved 29 April 2012. 
• "British Pathé Search: Carroll Gibbons - britishpathe.com". http://www.britishpathe.com/search/query/Carroll+Gibbons. Retrieved 2 May 2012. 
• "An Extraordinary Town, How one of America's smallest towns shaped the world" A book on Carroll Gibbon's hometown with an extensive section on the life and contributions of Carroll Gibbons. Written jointly with The Savoy in London.
• Carroll Gibbons at the Internet Movie Database
• Carroll Gibbons at Find a Grave

The Orchestra
The Orchestra 2008, performing at the Sweden Rock Festival.
Background information
Origin	Birmingham, England
Genres	Rock music, Pop music
Years active	2000–present
Associated acts	Electric Light Orchestra ELO Part II Styx
Website	theorchestra.net
Members
Louis Clark Eric Troyer Mik Kaminski Gordon Townsend Phil Bates Glen Burtnik
Past members
Kelly Groucutt Parthenon Huxley

The Orchestra is a rock band formed by former members of the Electric Light Orchestra and ELO Part II. It is the continuation of ELO Part II following Bev Bevan's departure and selling of the rights to Jeff Lynne.

History[link]

By 2000 Bev Bevan had sold his fifty per cent share of the Electric Light Orchestra name as well as the rights to the ELO Part II name to Jeff Lynne. Lynne, now the full owner of the ELO name, took legal action to prevent the band from continuing to call themselves “ELO Part II”. They initially tried to alter their name to “ELO2”, but they eventually submitted and changed their name to The Orchestra.

In 2001 The Orchestra released a limited number of their CD No Rewind which was produced and released without involvement from a major record label (but was subsequently released in Argentina by Art Music in 2005 and reissued worldwide in 2006). The album contains The Orchestra's best known non-ELO song, Over London Skies, a loving homage to the classic ELO sound in Jewel & Johnny and a cover of Twist and Shout which begins in a slow, plaintive minor key with arpeggiated chords before building to the familiar, rocking major progression. With the release of No Rewind, The Orchestra worked more original material into their set, with Jewel & Johnny and the album's title song becoming staples. The band continues to tour and regularly sells out shows in Chile, Argentina, the UK, Eastern Europe and elsewhere around the world.

In late 2004, a legal dispute almost erupted between The Orchestra and a Florida-based rock band called theOrchestra, but the issue was settled out-of-court.

The Orchestra toured the UK extensively in 2006 following the re-issue of No Rewind. The band were promoted using the descriptive phrase "Electric Light Orchestra Part II Former Members". Lynne sued The Orchestra, claiming copyright infringement. The matter went to litigation and in August 2006, a Los Angeles judge ruled in favour of the members of The Orchestra.^[1]

During The Orchestra's 2006 UK tour, Phil Bates, formerly a member of Trickster, ELO Part II and Bev Bevan's Move, stood in for Parthenon Huxley at a couple of gigs when Huxley had to return unexpectedly to the States to attend the funeral of his father. In July 2007 Huxley left the band to spend more time with his family and was replaced by Bates.

In 2008 The Orchestra participated in the Sweden Rock Festival.

On February 18, 2009 the group returned from a sell out concert in Berlin. But a few hours after returning home, Kelly Groucutt collapsed of a massive heart attack and died the following day. The band decided to carry on and brought in former Styx man Glen Burtnik on bass (Glen had filled in for Kelly previously during a 1998 ELO Part II tour when the latter had taken ill). On July 17, 2009 they opened for the Alan Parsons Live Project at DTE Theater in Clarkston, Michigan. Also in 2009 German bassist Ralf Vornberger played with the band in Israel when Glen was unavailable due to other work commitments booked before he joined the band.

In November 2011 guitarist Phil Bates left The Orchestra again, and Parthenon Huxley reclaimed his position as guitarist/singer. With Huxley on board The Orchestra ended 2011 with a 17-city tour of Eastern Europe, including stops in Russia, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic.

Members[link]

Current members[link]

• Louis Clark - keyboards, orchestral arranger and conductor (2000–present) (from ELO and ELO Part II)
• Eric Troyer - keyboards, vocals, guitar (2000–present) (from ELO Part II)
• Mik Kaminski - violin (2000–present) (from ELO and ELO Part II)
• Gordon Townsend - drums (2000–present)
• Parthenon Huxley - guitar, vocals (2000–2007 and 2011 to present) (from ELO Part II)
• Glen Burtnik - bass guitar, vocals (2009–present)

Former Members[link]

• Kelly Groucutt - bass guitar, vocals (2000–2009) (from ELO and ELO Part II)
• Phil Bates - guitar, vocals (2007-2011) (from ELO Part II)

Discography[link]

• No Rewind (2001)

Live albums[link]

• The Orchestra Live (2008)

Videos[link]

• Live in Reno (DVD), (2006)

Live Lineup History[link]

References[link]

1. ^ The P. Hux Chronicles Issue Number Nine

External links[link]

• [1] The Orchestra on Facebook

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008)

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
in 1934
Born	Luther Robinson (1878-05-25)May 25, 1878 Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Died	November 25, 1949(1949-11-25) (aged 71) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Dancer, actor
Spouse	Lena Chase (1907–1922) Fannie S. Clay (1922–1943) Elaine Plaines (1944–1949)

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949) was an American tap dancer and actor of stage and film. Audiences enjoyed his understated style, which eschewed the frenetic manner of the jitterbug in favor of cool and reserve; rarely did he use his upper body, relying instead on busy, inventive feet, and an expressive face.

A figure in both the black and white entertainment worlds of his era, he is best known today for his dancing with Shirley Temple in a series of films during the 1930s.

Life and career[link]

Early years[link]

Robinson was born in Richmond, Virginia to Maxwell, a machine-shop worker, and Maria Robinson, a choir singer. He was raised by his grandmother after both parents died in 1885 when he was 7 years old—his father from chronic heart disease and his mother from natural causes. Details of Robinson's early life are known only through legend, much of it perpetuated by Robinson himself. He claimed he was christened "Luther"—a name he did not like. He suggested to his younger brother Bill that they should exchange names. When Bill objected, Luther applied his fists, and the exchange was made.

Career[link]

At the age of five, Robinson began dancing for a living, appearing as a "hoofer" or busker in local beer gardens. He soon dropped out of school to pursue dancing as a career. In 1886, he joined Mayme Remington's troupe in Washington, DC, and toured with them. In 1891, at the age of 12, he joined a traveling company in The South Before the War, and in 1905 worked with George Cooper as a vaudeville team. He gained great success as a nightclub and musical comedy performer, and during the next 25 years became one of the toasts of Broadway. Not until he was 50 did he dance for white audiences, having devoted his early career exclusively to appearances on the black theater circuit.

In 1908, in Chicago, he met Marty Forkins, who became his lifelong manager. Under Forkins' tutelage, Robinson matured and began working as a solo act in nightclubs, increasing his earnings to an estimated $3,500 per week. In 1928, he starred with Adelaide Hall on Broadway in the hugely successful musical revue Blackbirds of 1928 written by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, in which he performed his famous stair dance. In 1930, he returned to Broadway to star with Adelaide Hall in Brown Buddies.

The publicity that gradually came to surround him included the creation of his famous "stair dance" (which he claimed to have invented on the spur of the moment when he was receiving an honor from the King of England, who was standing at the top of a flight of stairs – Bojangles' feet just danced up to be honored); his successful gambling exploits; his bow ties of multiple colors; his prodigious charity; his ability to run backward extremely fast; his argot, most notably the neologism copacetic;^[1] and such stunts as dancing down Broadway in 1939 from Columbus Circle to 44th St. in celebration of his 61st birthday.

Little is known of his first marriage to Fannie S. Clay in Chicago shortly after World War I, his divorce in 1943, or his marriage to Elaine Plaines on January 27, 1944, in Columbus, Ohio.

Robinson served as a rifleman in World War I with New York's 15th Infantry Regiment, National Guard. The Regiment was renamed the 369th Infantry while serving under France's Fourth Army and earned the nickname the "Harlem Hellfighters". Along with serving in the trenches in World War I, Robinson was also the 369th "Hellfighters Band" drum major and led the regimental band up Fifth Avenue on the 369th's return from overseas.^[2]

Toward the end of the vaudeville era, a white impresario, Lew Leslie, produced Blackbirds of 1928, a black revue for white audiences featuring Robinson and other black stars. From then on, his public role was that of a dapper, smiling, plaid-suited ambassador to the white world, maintaining a tenuous connection with the black show-business circles through his continuing patronage of the Hoofers Club, an entertainer's haven in Harlem.

Consequently, blacks and whites developed differing opinions of him. To whites, for example, his nickname "Bojangles" meant happy-go-lucky, while the black variety artist Tom Flatcher claimed it was slang for "squabbler."^[3] Political figures and celebrities appointed him an honorary mayor of Harlem, a lifetime member of policemen's associations and fraternal orders, and a mascot of the New York Giants major league baseball team. Robinson reciprocated with open handed generosity and frequently credited the white dancer James Barton for his contribution to his dancing style.

After 1930, black revues waned in popularity, but Robinson remained in vogue with white audiences for more than a decade in some fourteen motion pictures produced by such companies as RKO, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. Most of them had musical settings, in which he played old-fashioned roles in nostalgic romances. His most frequent role was that of an antebellum butler opposite Shirley Temple in such films as The Little Colonel, The Littlest Rebel, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Just Around the Corner, or Will Rogers in In Old Kentucky. Robinson was the first African–American male to appear on film dancing with a Caucasian girl, Shirley Temple (The Little Colonel 1935).

Rarely did he depart from the stereotype imposed by Hollywood writers. In a small vignette in Hooray for Love he played a mayor of Harlem modeled after his own ceremonial honor; in One Mile from Heaven, he played a romantic lead opposite African-American actress Fredi Washington after Hollywood had relaxed its taboo against such roles for blacks. He only appeared in one film intended for black audiences, Harlem is Heaven, a financial failure that turned him away from independent production.

In 1939, he returned to the stage in The Hot Mikado, a jazz version of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta produced at the 1939 New York World's Fair, which was one of the greatest hits of the fair. His next performance, in All in Fun (1940), failed to attract audiences. His last theatrical project was to have been Two Gentlemen from the South, with James Barton, in which the black and white roles reverse and eventually come together as equals, but the show did not open. Thereafter, he confined himself to occasional performances, but he could still dance well in his late sixties, to the continual astonishment of his admirers. He explained this extraordinary versatility—he once danced for more than an hour before a dancing class without repeating a step—by insisting that his feet responded directly to the music, his head having nothing to do with it.

Death[link]

Despite earning more than US$2 million during his lifetime, Robinson died penniless in 1949, at the age of 71 from heart failure. His funeral, which was arranged by longtime friend and television host Ed Sullivan, was held at the 369th Infantry Regiment Armory near Harlem and attended by 32,000 people. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. gave the eulogy, which was broadcast over the radio.^[4][5] Robinson is buried in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn, New York.

Legacy[link]

A statue of Bill Robinson sculpted by Jack Witt in Richmond, Virginia, at the intersection of Adams and West Leigh Streets.

Robinson was dogged by lifelong personal demons, having great success despite the obstacle of racism. A favorite Robinson anecdote is that he seated himself in a restaurant and a customer objected to his presence. When the manager suggested that it might be better if Robinson leave, he smiled and asked, "Have you got a ten dollar bill?" Politely asking to borrow the manager's note for a moment, Robinson added six $10 bills from his own wallet and mixed them up, then extended the seven bills together, adding, "Here, let's see you pick out the colored one." The restaurant manager served Robinson without further delay.^[6]

A man with a big heart, he was a soft touch for anyone who was down on their luck or had a good story. Despite earning and spending a fortune his haunting memories of surviving on the streets as a child never left him, prompting many acts of generosity. In 1933, while in his hometown of Richmond, he saw two children risk speeding traffic to cross a street to get their ball, because there was no stoplight at the intersection. Robinson went to the city and provided the money to have one installed. In 1973, a statue of "Bojangles" was erected in a small park at that intersection.

Bojangles co-founded the New York Black Yankees baseball team in Harlem in 1936 with financier James "Soldier Boy" Semler. The team was a successful member of the Negro National League until it disbanded in 1948, after Major League Baseball was desegregated and began to absorb the top Black talent available.

In 1989, a joint U.S. Senate/House resolution declared "National Tap Dance Day" to be May 25, the anniversary of Bill Robinson's birth.

Robinson was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame in 1987.

In popular culture[link]

• Fred Astaire paid tribute to Bill Robinson in the tap routine Bojangles of Harlem from the 1936 film Swing Time. In it, Astaire famously dances to three of his shadows.
• Duke Ellington composed "Bojangles (A Portrait of Bill Robinson)", a set of rhythmic variations as a salute to the great dancer.
• Bill Robinson's biography was published in 1988 and a made-for-television film entitled Bojangles was released in 2001. The film earned the NAACP Best actor Award for Gregory Hines' performance as Bill Robinson.
• While Jerry Jeff Walker's 1968 folk song "Mr. Bojangles" is often thought to be about Robinson himself, it was actually inspired by Walker's encounter with a street performer in the New Orleans first precinct jail.
• Arthur Duncan, an exceptional tap dancer in his own right, frequently paid homage to Bill Robinson with the stair routine on The Lawrence Welk Show.
• Is mentioned in the Larry Norman song "Nightmare" from the album So Long Ago the Garden.
• Bojangles is also the name of a franchise fried chicken restaurant chain in the southeastern U.S.
• In the "All in the Family" episode "Lionel Steps Out" Robinson's dancing with Shirley Temple were referenced.

Filmography[link]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Dance portal

• Racism in the United States
• Blackface

Notes[link]

References[link]

Sources

• Some biographical material is from the International Tap Association Newsletter, May/June 1993. The biographical material was extrapolated from The American Dictionary of Biography and Webster's American Biographies.
• Haskins, James; Mitgang, N. R., Mr. Bojangles: the biography of Bill Robinson (New York: William Morrow, 1988). ISBN 0-688-07203-8

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bill Robinson

• "Bill Robinson". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=879. Retrieved May 14, 2009. 
• Bill Robinson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Bill Robinson at the Internet Movie Database
• Bojangles at the Evergreens Cemetery

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Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins, circa September 1946. Photo: William P. Gottlieb.
Background information
Birth name	Coleman Randolph Hawkins
Born	(1904-11-21)November 21, 1904
Origin	Saint Joseph, Missouri, United States
Died	May 19, 1969(1969-05-19) (aged 64)
Genres	Swing music, bebop
Instruments	Tenor saxophone, bass saxophone, clarinet
Years active	1921-1969[1]
Associated acts	Ben Webster, Max Roach

Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.^[2] Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn".^[3] While Hawkins is most strongly associated with the swing music and big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s.^[2]

Lester Young, who was called "Pres", in a 1959 interview with The Jazz Review, said "As far as I'm concerned, I think Coleman Hawkins was the President first, right? As far as myself, I think I'm the second one."^[3] Miles Davis once said: "When I heard Hawk, I learned to play ballads."^[3] Hawkins was nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean".

Biography[link]

Coleman Hawkins (incorrectly spelled "Haskins" in the caption) pictured in the Topeka High School orchestra, from the 1921 yearbook.

Early life and the swing era[link]

Hawkins was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, in 1904. Some out-of-date sources say 1901, but there is no evidence to prove an earlier date; instead, there is record of Hawkins's parents' first female child being born on 8 March 1901 and dying in 1903 at the age of two, possibly basis for the mistaken belief.^[4] He was named Coleman after his mother Cordelia's maiden name.

He attended high school in Chicago, then in Topeka, Kansas at Topeka High School. He later stated that he studied harmony and composition for two years at Washburn College in Topeka while still attending THS. In his youth he played piano and cello, and started playing saxophone at the age of nine; by the age of fourteen he was playing around eastern Kansas.

Hawkins's first major gig was with Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds in 1921, whom he joined permanently in April 1922 and toured with through 1923, when he settled in New York City. Hawkins joined Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, where he remained until 1934, sometimes doubling on clarinet and bass saxophone. Hawkins's playing changed significantly during Louis Armstrong's tenure with the Henderson Orchestra during 1924-25. In the late 20's, Hawkins also participated in some of the earliest interracial recording sessions with the Mound City Blue Blowers. During the time with Henderson, he became a star soloist with an increasing amount of star solos on record. While with the band, he and Henry "Red" Allen recorded a series of small group sides for ARC (on their Perfect, Melotone, Romeo, and Oriole labels). Hawkins also recorded a number of solo recordings, with either piano or with a pick-up band of Henderson's musicians in 1933-34, just prior to his European trip. He was also featured on a landmark Benny Goodman February 2, 1934 session for Columbia, which also featured Mildred Bailey as guest vocalist.

In late 1934, Hawkins accepted an invitation to play with Jack Hylton's band in London, and toured Europe as a soloist until 1939, memorably working with Django Reinhardt and Benny Carter in Paris in 1937.^[5] Having returned to the United States, on October 11, 1939, he recorded a two-chorus performance of the pop standard "Body and Soul", which he had been performing at Kelly's Stables. A landmark recording of the swing era, recorded as an afterthought at the session, it is notable in that Hawkins ignores almost all of the melody, only the first four bars are stated in a recognizable fashion. In its exploration of harmonic structure^[5] it is considered by many to be the next evolutionary step in jazz recording from where Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" in 1928 left off.

The bebop era[link]

Hawkins with Miles Davis at Three Deuces on 52nd Street in NYC, ca. July 1947. Photo: William P. Gottlieb.

After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a big band, he led a combo at Kelly's Stables on Manhattan's 52nd Street with Thelonious Monk, Oscar Pettiford, Miles Davis, and Max Roach as sidemen. Hawkins always had a keen ear for new talent and styles, and he was leader on what is generally considered the first ever bebop recording session with Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach in 1944.^[6][7] Later he toured with Howard McGhee and recorded with J. J. Johnson and Fats Navarro. He also toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic.

In 1948 Hawkins recorded Picasso, an early piece for unaccompanied saxophone.

After 1948 Hawkins divided his time between New York and Europe, making numerous freelance recordings. In the 1960s, he appeared regularly at the Village Vanguard in Manhattan.

Hawkins directly influenced many bebop performers, and later in his career, recorded or performed with such adventurous musicians as Sonny Rollins, who considered him as his main influence, and John Coltrane. He appears on the Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (Riverside) record. In 1960 he recorded on Max Roach's We Insist! - Freedom Now suite.^[2]

Later life[link]

The grave of Coleman Hawkins

In the 1950s, Hawkins performed with more traditional musicians such as Henry "Red" Allen and Roy Eldridge with whom he appeared at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival and recorded Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster with fellow tenor saxophonist Ben Webster along with Oscar Peterson (piano), Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), and Alvin Stoller (drums).

In the 1960s, Hawkins began to drink heavily and his recording output began to wane. However, he did manage to record some notable albums with musicians such as Duke Ellington, among others. His last recording was in 1967.

With failing health, Hawkins succumbed to pneumonia in 1969 and is interred in the Yew Plot at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.^[2]

The Song of the Hawk, a 1990 biography written by British jazz historian John Chilton, chronicles Hawkins's career as one of the influential jazz performers of the 20th century.

Discography[link]

"Chicago"--Decca # 661--1935 "Netcha's Dream"--Decca--# 661--1935

As leader[link]

• Body and Soul (1939–1956, RCA)
• Picasso (album) (1948)
• The Hawk in Paris (1956, RCA Victor Gold)
• The Hawk Flies High (1957)
• Bean Bags (Atlantic, 1958)
• Hawk Eyes! (1959)
• In a Mellow Tone (1960)
• Bean Stalkin' (1960)
• At Ease with Coleman Hawkins (1960), Rerelease (1985) OJC-181
• Night Hawk (1961, with Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Swingville)
• The Hawk Relaxes (1961, Moodsville)
• Good Old Broadway (1962, Moodsville)
• Alive! (1962)
• Sonny Meets Hawk! with Sonny Rollins (1963)
• Sirius (1966)
• Jazz Reunion (with Pee Wee Russell, Candid Records)

Impulse! Records

• 1962: Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins
• 1962: Today and Now
• 1962: Desafinado
• 1965: Wrapped Tight

Pablo Records

• 1967: The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World

Verve Records

• 1957: Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster
• 1957: The Genius of Coleman Hawkins
• 1958: Coleman Hawkins and Confreres
• 1962: Hawkins! Eldridge! Hodges! Alive at the Village Gate

As sideman[link]

With Abbey Lincoln

• Straight Ahead (Candid, 1961)

With Shelly Manne

• 2-3-4 (Impulse!, 1962)

With Thelonious Monk

• Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (Riverside, 1957)

With Max Roach

• We Insist! - Freedom Now (Candid, 1960)

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Coleman Hawkins

• Internet Movie Database
• BookRags biography
• The Red Hot Jazz Archive biography
• Jazz for Beginners biography
• Coleman Hawkins Legacy Jazz Festival
• Coleman Hawkins at Find a Grave