Coleman Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, he played piano at age four, cello at seven and saxophone by nine. As a tenn, he combined a standard high school education with semi-pro playing and college music studies. By nineteen, he had settled in New York City and joined Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra for a ten-year stint that shaped him as the major saxophone soloist of the era. A freelance recording star in the mid-1930s, he travelled to Europe for an extended engagement with Jack Hilton's orchestra and subsequent touring in Europe with Django Reinhardt and Benny Carter. Returning to the US in 1939, Hawkins quickly established himself as one of the leading tenors in a rapidly expanding field of top-flight players. His Body and Soul solo raised the bar for Lester Young and the other virtuosos of the day. Meanwhile Hawkins stepped to the forefront of the bebop ranks by playing key sessions with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Howard McGhee. During the 1950s, Hawkins moved effortlessly between swing and bop in the US and Europe, making influential recordings everywhere he went. Here is is on the BBC, playing Wembley Town Hall in 1964 with Sir Charles Thompson, Jimmy Woode and Jo Jones on September Song:
Working the Village Vanguard regularly, he also appeared with Duke Ellington and, in 1963, played the Newport Jazz Festival with Sonny Rollins. In an era when jazz was a sub-culture, Coleman Hawkins was a superstar. But the life caught up with him and he died, something of a relic in the age of rock and roll.
