Coleman Hawkins – Live in ’62 & ’64 – (Jazz Icons IV series)
Studio: Reelin’ in the Years/ Jazz Icons 2119020 [Distr. by Naxos] [Release date: 10/27/09]
Video: 4:3 B&W
Audio: Dolby mono
All regions
Length: 140 minutes
Extras: 24 page booklet with liner notes by Scott Deveaux, and foreword by Colette Hawkins
Rating: ****
(Coleman Hawkins, tenor sax, backed on 1962 Belgium concert by George Arvanitas, piano; Jimmy Woode, bass; and Kansas Fields, drums – and on 10/64 BBC performance by: Harry “Sweets” Edison, trumpet; “Sir” Charles Thompson, piano; Jimmy Woode, bass; and “Papa” Jo Jones, drums)
The opportunity to see the “Father” of the tenor sax, Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969), on video is a rare one. During Hawkins’ prime – in the 30s to 50s – there is very little video archived of viewable quality, so it is a special treat to have 140 minutes of the master playing at the end of his career. Hawkins had begun to deteriorate rapidly at the end of his career beginning in 1967, when he largely stopped eating and began to drink even more heavily. He was a wisp of his formerly robust stature in 1969 when he passed away. The jazz world had changed, as free jazz had begun to creep onto the jazz scene, and although Hawkins had survived and even mastered the bop idiom of the late 40s and early 50s, he had a hard time accepting some of the directions that jazz was heading. The difference in his appearance, even just between 1962 and 1964, is apparent on this Jazz Icons DVD. Though still vibrant in 1964, Hawkins had already begun to lose weight and within three years his demise began.
The difference in video and audio quality between the 1962 Belgium concert and the 1964 BBC Wembley Hall show is also quite distinguishable. (In spite of considerable video restoration work having being done on the ’62 video…Ed.) The June 4, 1962 concert in Brussels was recorded at the Adolphe Sax Festival de Belgique. Adolphe Sax is credited with inventing the saxophone and it was fitting that the Festival honored Hawkins as its guest star, since Coleman is credited with helping make the saxophone a premier solo instrument in jazz.
Hawkins’ band played only one original, Disorder at the Border, at the Brussels show. The balance was standards – Autumn Leaves, Lover Come Back to Me, Moonlight in Vermont, All the Things You Are, and Ow. Of these, only Dizzy Gillespie’s Ow was a somewhat contemporary composition. Unlike the 1964 BBC concert, Hawkins alone was the sole attraction, with his backing band not well known. Arvanitas, the French pianist, twenty seven years younger than Bean (Hawkins’ nickname given to him as a pseudonym for “egghead” due to his mastery of music theory), was a modernist as a pianist – certainly compared to “Sir” Charles Thompson, the pianist from two years later. Arvanitas keeps things interesting as an accompanist for Hawkins, as does drummer Kansas Fields (who had played with Gillespie). Fields has several distinctive bop drum solos and at times seems to resent his being reeled in by Hawkins. Fields shows himself to be a master snare drum player and really shines on Disorder at the Border, just after Coleman has blown nineteen hot choruses building in intensity. The Brussels concert is a mix of ballads – Autumn Leaves and Moonlight in Vermont – with burners like Lover Come Back to Me and Ow. The video quality of the ’62 concert is only passable with the audio a bit better.
However, the 1964 Wembley BBC concert (like the Art Farmer Jazz Icons DVD) is a different matter. The video approaches the Farmer concert in quality – the lighting on the Farmer is more conducive to enjoyment – and the mono audio is quite decent. The ’64 BBC performance is much more a sharing of talents than the Brussels show was. Along with a reprise of Disorder at the Border, the all-star band has two ballad medley features – Lover Man/Stella by Starlight/Girl from Ipanema (an odd choice); and September Song/What’s New/ Willow Weep for Me – for which a particular soloist is featured as the primary musician. “Sweets” Edison shows his mastery on trumpet blues on Willow Weep for Me, and “Sir” Charles Thompson displays his elegant swing on Stella by Starlight. Coleman, of course, owns Lover Man and September Song as his ballad mastery is only approached on numbers like these by someone like Ben Webster.
Hawkins and Edison share honors on Edison’s Centerpiece. The Wembley performance ends on a high note with Caravan, where “Papa” Jo Jones, the great Basie drummer has a five-minute solo where he shows his understated yet complete mastery of the drum kit. Jones was a perfect fit for the Basie band, and he shows his esteemed band mates here that he can whip Caravan to new heights.
Coleman Hawkins’s daughter, Colette, wrote the foreword for the included 24-page booklet and jazz historian Scott Deveaux covers the life of Hawkins in a concise yet comprehensive style. There is no question that the Coleman Hawkins Jazz Icons DVD belongs in the collection of any jazz collector whose interest goes back to one of the founding fathers of jazz tenor saxophone, Coleman Hawkins.
– Jeff Krow
