SwingJournal #12

Maria:: It took two days for Coleman Hawkins to complete the recording. One of them is October 16th, 1957 in Los Angeles. This composition, Maria and 2. "Cocktail for Two" belong to the Los Angeles session. You can listen to two great tenor saxophonists in Jazz history on this LA session. They are the leader, Coleman Hawkins and a guest artist Ben Webster. In addition to these tenor saxophonists, the rhythm section is taken care of by pianist Oscar Person, bassist Ray Brown, guitarist Herb Ellis and drummer Alvin Stoller. Peterson starts the laid-back four bars piano intro, then you can listen to beautiful harmonized unison melody by two tenors on the section A. The chorus of Maria comprised in an AABA form, and an A section is 12 bars blues. The section B is in 8 bars and Colman Hawkins improvises over the changes and Ben Webster keeps obligato behind Hawkins. Hawkins plays the first solo and mellower sound, while Ben Webster plays the second solo.

Cocktail for Two: Again Oscar Peterson sets up a beautiful intro for Coleman Hawkins to enter. Oscar's intro is stride piano style, therefore the melody is played as walking ballad. Each phrase Coleman Hawkins plays, Oscar Peterson responds with attractive single notes line. The chorus of "Cocktail for Two" comprised of four eight-bar phrases in an AABA form. After Hawkins plays 1 chorus of melody, he jumps to section B to improvise. After the B section, Hawkins closes out to play the last A section melody and this time Ben Webster shows up at the end to reply to Hawkins' melody.

Sunday: From 3 to 6 compositions were recorded on February 7th, 1958 in New York City with Hawkins (tenor sax), Roy Eldridge (trumpet), Hank Jones (piano), George Duvivier (bass) and Mickey Sheen (drums). This song was composed by Chester Conn and Frank Sinatra made this song famous. The song is constructed of four eight-bar phrases in an AABA form. The piano trio starts eight bars in order to let Roy Eldridge play the main melody with muted trumpet and Hawkins plays obrigado lines on the A sections. Hawkins plays the main melody on B sections and Eldridge lays out. When they finish the head-in melody, they break for the first soloist. Roy Eldridge plays the fill in during the break but he lays out for Hank Jones to play the piano solo. Jones plays one chorus solo with his post bebop vocabularies. Hawkins plays the second solo and Eldridge plays the third solo. Eldridge takes off a mute from his trumpet for his solo. Duvivier and Sheen a half chorus solo each. Toward the end of Sheen's solo, he pushed the head with his drum sticks to change the pitch. He plays the Sunday melody on his drum solo.

Hanid: Sheen keeps uptempo high-hat swing rhythm for 8bars for the intro along with Duvivier's accented bass lines. Even though Hawkins was the main factor to influence Charlie Parker, you can clearly listen to Charlie Parker influence on this composition. Compared to all other compositions, this composition is a fast tempo bebop tune. Hawkins and Eldridge unison the entire AABA melody. There are 4 bars drums break before Eldridge starts playing solo. Even though Eldridge plays the head-in melody with open bell, he mutes his trumpet for this solo. Hank Jones lays out Eldridge's first half of the solo. But Jones starts accompanying Eldridge as soon as Eldridge takes mute off. Hawkins takes the second solo with little bitter tone and Jones follows with slick single line notes. Duvivier also plays walking bass solo with devoted tempo. After Duvivier's solo, Hawkins and Eldridge close with head-out melody. Eldridge has motif melody figures while Hawkins holds longer wholes notes.

Honey Flower: With Hank Jones' trio with Sheen's laid back brushes open this composition. There are two different melody that can be heard when sax and trumpet come in. Compare the Hawkins' tones between this composition and the 4th compassion "Hanid", his tone is much softer for this composition. Jones is the first soloist and Duvivier plays the second solo. Eldridge plays without a mute on the melody but when he takes the third solo, he puts his mute to his trumpet. He keeps a lot of space from phrases to phrases. Hawking is the last soloist on this composition. He plays a lot 8th notes with many pre-bebop vocabularies. After Hawkins' solo, Hawkins and Eldridge start playing second melody, Head-in chorus is more call and response effect, and head out chorus is more unison harmonized lines between Hawkins and Eldridge.

Nabob: Audio File

Download Sheet Music for Coleman Hawkins' Nabob

Solo Guitar Arrangement/Performance by Hideaki Tokunaga