Hawkins Young

While Hawkins represents the beginnings and one of the summits of jazz tenor saxophone, Frank Wess slips in the back door as one of the finest of the many second-generation players coming out of both Bean and Lester Young's lineage. Taking off from his groundbreaking work with Fletcher Henderson in the '20s and his pinnacle "Body and Soul" solo from 1939, Hawkins spent a good deal of the '40s rubbing shoulders with bebop youngsters and forward-looking swing players on a variety of small-combo recordings; he is heard here on a few such dates from 1940 and 1943. Teaming up with stellar big-band contemporaries like trumpeter Roy Eldridge, alto saxophonist Benny Carter, and drummer Sid Catlett, among others, Hawkins is in fine form on a mix of ballads and swingers for the 1940 session…

This is a decent but not very exciting outing. Then 52, Hawkins uses a typically young rhythm section (including guitarist Kenny Burrell and pianist Ray Bryant) and plays melodically on a variety of originals and standards. This insipid version of "Greensleeves" is difficult to sit through but the rest of this CD is enjoyable if not overly inspiring.

During the mid-'40s Coleman Hawkins was hitting another peak, seasoned by many years in big bands both in the States and Europe. He wasn't out of fashion during those early bop years, either, as he often played with the music's young Turks; their sound was a mix of the big band era's refined combo swing and bop's new, angular energy. This Classics disc captures some of the tenor great's best sides from the period, including an early bop milestone featuring Dizzy Gillespie and Don Byas ("Disorder at the Border") and tracks with Ben Webster and a variety of small bands graced by the likes of Byas, Teddy Wilson, Harry Carney, and Cozy Cole. Essential listening.