The Hawk speaks - All-Star conflagration and a blissed-out German audience.
Coleman Hawkins All-Stars – Live In Munich 1950 – Past Daily Downbeat
The legendary Coleman Hawkins this weekend, at a superb-sounding concert from 1950, recorded by Bavarian Radio and rebroadcast in 2009 and subsequently issued privately and not-so-privately over the years.
An amazing show with Hawkins at the helm of a truly astonishing line-up of American cohorts as well as French up-and-comers at the time.
Here’s the lineup:
Coleman Hawkins, James Moody – tenor sax
Nat Peck, trombone
Hubert Fol, alto sax
Jean-Pierre Mengeon, piano
Pierre Michelot, bass
Kenny Clarke, drums
And here’s the track rundown:
– Introduction
2 – Allen’s Alley
3 – Rifftide
4 – El Sino
5 – It’s the Talk of the Town
6 – Lady Bird
7 – Robbin’s Nest
8 – Disorder at the Border
9 – Body and Soul
10 – Epistrophy
11 – Sweet Georgia Brown
12 – Sophisticated Lady
13 – Stuffy
14 – The Man I Love
15 – How High the Moon
16 – The Squirrel
Needless to say, the German audience is ecstatic, as American Jazz overtook Europe in ways few art forms did until Rock n’ Roll arrived in the early 1950s.
Hawkins always had a keen ear for new talent and styles, and he was the leader on what is generally considered to have been the first ever bebop recording session in 1944 with Dizzy Gillespie, Pettiford and Roach. Later he toured with Howard McGhee and recorded with J. J. Johnson and Fats Navarro. He also toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic.
After 1948 Hawkins divided his time between New York and Europe, making numerous freelance recordings. In 1948 Hawkins recorded “Picasso“, an early piece for unaccompanied saxophone.
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 (Jazzland/Riverside) record. In 1960 he recorded on Roach’s We Insist! suite.
This concert affirms his keen ear for new talent, in Europe as well as stateside. The introduction of such French notables as Jean-Pierre Michelot and Hubert Fol was typical of the new talent he was spotting and putting center-stage.
I originally posted this several years ago as part of the old site – it’s been upgraded and sounds much better than the post in 2012. But they are the same, so don’t think I’ve made an additional discovery. The concert fades out toward the end of The Squirrel – the reason: the original tape ran out before the show was completed.
Enjoy nonetheless.
