Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. 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." Hawkins biographer John Chilton described the prevalent styles of tenor saxophone solos prior to Hawkins as "mooing" and "rubbery belches". Paul Gonsalves, and Lucky Thompson. While Hawkins became known with swing music during the big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s. in 1904. He was named Coleman after his mother Cordelia's maiden name. There is record of Hawkins's parents' first child, a girl, being born in 1901 and dying at the age of two.
At age four, Hawkins began to study the piano, then the cello at age seven, before switching to the saxophone by age nine. By the age of fourteen, he was playing around eastern Kansas. Theories around the nickname's basis include a reference to Hawkins's head shape, his frugality (saying "I haven't a bean") or due to his immense knowledge of chords. Hawkins joined Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, where he remained until 1934, In the late 1920s, Hawkins participated in some of the earliest integrated recording sessions with the Mound City Blue Blowers. During his time with Henderson, he became a star soloist with increasing prominence on records. 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 a pick-up band of Henderson's musicians in 1933–34, just prior to his period in Europe. He was also featured on a Benny Goodman session on February 2, 1934, for Columbia, which also featured Mildred Bailey as guest vocalist.
In late 1934, Hawkins accepted an invitation to play with Jack Hylton's orchestra in London, During Hawkins's time touring Europe between 1934 and 1939, attention in the U.S. shifted to other tenor saxophonists, including Lester Young, Ben Webster, and Chu Berry. Following his return to the United States, he quickly re-established himself as one of the leading figures on the instrument by adding innovations to his earlier style.
On October 11, 1939, he recorded a two-chorus performance of the standard "Body and Soul",
Loren Schoenberg, Director of National Jazz Museum in Harlem, states that “no matter how nonchalantly Hawkins tried to make the choice to record 'Body And Soul' seem, it had long been his encore during his European years, and he had a lot riding on this session. Lester Young was at his zenith with the Basie band, and virtually all of the other major bands had a Hawkins-styled tenor in a featured position. The decades as a musical omnivore came to fruition as he signaled to pianist Gene Rodgers to make an introduction in Db. The sounds of Bach, Tatum, Armstrong, and the untold musicians who had filled his head and ears culminated in one of the greatest spontaneous set of variations ever recorded".
The 1940s and 1950s
thumb|Coleman Hawkins, c. September 1946
After a brief period in 1940 leading a big band, 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 on February 16, 1944, including Dizzy Gillespie, Don Byas, Clyde Hart, Oscar Pettiford, and Max Roach. On October 19, 1944, he led another bebop recording session with Thelonious Monk on piano, Edward Robinson on bass, and Denzil Best on drums.
Given his love of Bach and Pablo Casals and his own unquenchable thirst for self-expression, it was inevitable that Hawkins would move towards solo performances. During his European tour, he began surrounding his songs with unaccompanied introductions and codas. In January 1945 he recorded Solo Sessions. Harry Lim, a Javanese jazz lover who came to America in 1939, first produced jam sessions in Chicago and New York and then founded Keynote Records, a premier small jazz label. In an article for Metronome magazine in May, 1944, Lim dubbed Hawkins “the Picasso of Jazz”. Outtakes from this session comprised half of the tracks on Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane, released on the Jazzland Records subsidiary of Riverside Records in 1961.
1960–1969
In the 1960s, Hawkins appeared regularly at the Village Vanguard in Manhattan. In 1960, he participated in the recording of Max Roach's We Insist! suite, Hawkins recorded in 1963 alongside Sonny Rollins for their collaborative album Sonny Meets Hawk!, for RCA Victor.
It was shortly after this busy period that Hawkins fell into the grip of depression and heavy drinking and his recording output began to wane. Hawkins is interred in the Yew Plot at the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.