Customer Reviews

At Ease w/Coleman Hawkins: Rudy Van Gelder Remasters

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This is the kind of small-group playing that made jazz groups so enjoyable back in the day. Hawkins plays less aggressively on this one and is backed by a great rhythm section, including Tommy Flanagan on piano. You can close your eyes and see this group in a small jazz club somewhere. Great with friends and a bottle of wine at the end of the day! This one had me once I heard Hawkins do "Then I'll Be Tired of You". Absolutely beautiful old-school tenor playing!!!

This whole album is excellent, the Hawk laying back and blowing melodies like elegant smoke rings around the sensitive and mellow accompaniment, and Flanagan steps out nicely a few times. Nothing here is quite as perfect as Hawkins' legendary early take on Body and Soul, but his version of Mighty Like A Rose is pure beauty. Dispensing entirely with improv, he states the melody over and over with simple mastery, his round, breathy tone never lapsing into kitsch. Few jazzmen get this much emotional depth from their horns. It's not hard to see why Hawkins was the idol of them all until Parker showed up, and even then, not even Bird could soar more mellifluously than the Hawk.

It's hard to match the feeling imparted by a beautiful melody played with grace and soul. Check this one out.

Anyone who digs Coleman Hawkins should really get this classic 1960 Moodsville recording. This is the Hawk, if you've never heard him prior to his swing days, that you never imagined. Remarkable ballads played by one of the living legends of the tenor saxophone. Hawkins is backed by Tommy Flanagan on piano, Wendell Marshall on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums.

A must own for anyone interesting in the Hawk!