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JJ 03/85: Coleman Hawkins

Forty years ago Eddie Cook filled in the technical gaps in Burnett James' appraisal and explanation of Coleman Hawkins' saxophone tone. First published in Jazz Journal March 1985

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This is another issue in the comprehensive series by Spellmount dealing with great jazz masters. Totalling only around 80 pages, the book must be regarded as a profile, but the 52 pages or so of actual text represents something of a masterpiece of concise documentation and is extremely informative.

Hawkins was a difficult man to get to know, by all accounts, and personal stories about him are rare; there are few in this publication. Burnett James’ approach is a trifle academic but given the limitations on space, this is, I suppose, understandable. I find one or two passages oddly expressed and in dealing with tenor saxophone tones and the production thereof, the author is obviously out of his depth. A personal sound – whether from Hawkins, Tate, Young or Getz – depends as much on the mouthpiece and the make of instrument as on the performer, and Hawkins’ harder, louder, coarser approach in middle-later years may be due to the fact that he changed to a stainless-steel Berg Larsen with a 140/0 lay following the theft of his instrument, and this produced a big sound. He used this mouthpiece for several years, certainly during the middle-late fifties which I regard as perhaps his best period, but seems to have resorted to an Otto Link once more during the final years of his life. But by this time he was using a microphone for solos more than in earlier days, and there is a noticeable change in sound. All that is by the by. The question is: is this book worthwhile? The undoubted answer is – yes, despite its brevity.

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Coleman Hawkins by Burnett James; Spellmount Ltd, hardback £3.95 

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