Track Listing
1. Body and Soul
2. When Day Is Done
3. Bouncing With Bean
4. April in Paris
5. Angel Face
6. I Love You
7. There Will Never Be Another You
8. Little Girl Blue
9. Bean Stalks Again, The
10. Have You Met Miss Jones?

Personnel includes: Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone); Thelma Carpenter (vocals); Benny Carter (alto saxophone, trumpet); Eustice Moore, Budd Johnson (alto saxophone); Fats Navarro, Jimmy Nottingham, Tommy Lindsay, Joe Guy (trumpet); Jimmy Buffington (French horn); J.C. Higginbotham, J.J. Johnson, Urbie Green, Jack Satterfield (trombone); Julius Baker, Sid Jekowsky (flute); Danny Polo (clarinet); Phil Bodner (oboe); Hal McKusick, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn (reeds); Marty Wilson (vibraphone); Gene Rodgers, Hank Jones (piano); Lawrence Lucie, Chuck Wayne, Barry Gailbraith (guitar); Johnny Williams, Milt Hinton, Oscar Smith, Jack Lesberg (bass); Walter Johnson, Max Roach, Osie Johnson, Art Herbert (drums); Phil Kraus (bells).

Recorded between October 11, 1939 and January 20, 1956. Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.

Digitally remastered by Joe Lopes and Jay Newland (1991, BMG Recording Studios, New York, New York).

On APRIL IN PARIS, the king of tenor saxophone plays in myriad musical settings recorded over three decades. Hawkins' inimitable dark-toned sound is documented over these ten tracks. However, his classic recordings from the '30s and '40s demonstrate his legacy best. Whether it is "Body and Soul" or "Bouncing With Bean," Hawk's woody, vibrato-laden approach is in full bloom.

Songs such as "There Will Never Be Another You," "Little Girl Blue," and "Have you Met Miss Jones?" are enhanced by the delicate and lush sound of a string orchestra. Hawkins, known for a thick, almost abrasive sound, plays lighter and more romantically (a la his friend Lester Young) on these tracks.

Track Listing
1. Tuxedo Junction
2. After Hours
3. Tippin' In
4. Rockin' Rollers' Jubilee
5. Weary Blues - (bonus track)
6. Easy Rider
7. Swing Out
8. Big Wig in the Wigwam - (bonus track)
9. Swingin' on Lenox Avenue - (bonus track)
10. Gin Mill Special
11. Cherry
12. Dolomite
13. Song of the Wanderer - (bonus track)
14. Junction Blues
15. Sweet Georgia Brown
16. Five O'Clock Whistle - (bonus track)
17. Soft Winds
18. Nona
19. Blackout
20. Don't Cry Baby
21. Bear Mash Blues

Personnel: Erskine Hawkins (trumpet), Ida James (vocals), Jimmy Mitchelle (alto saxophone, vocals), William Johnson, Bobby Smith (alto saxophones), Julian Dash, Paul Bascomb, Aaron Maxwell (tenor saxophones), Heywood Henry (baritone saxophone, clarinet), Sam Lowe, Wilbur Bascomb, Marcellus Green, James Harris, Charles Jones, Willie Moore, Robert Johnson (trumpets), Edward Sims, Robert Range, Richard Harris, Norman Greene, David James, Donald Cole (trombones), Avery Parrish, Ace Harris (pianos), William McLemore, Leroy Kirkland (guitars), Leemie Stanfield (bass), James Morrison, Edward McConney, Kelly Martin (drums).

Recorded in New York between 1938 and 1942, and Chicago on January 10, 1945. Includes liner notes by Stanley Dance.

Booklet includes a discography and detailed personnel listings.

Personnel: Erskine Hawkins (trumpet).

Recording information: 09/12/1938-01/10/1945.

This is an excellent one-CD sampler of the music of Erskine Hawkins' Orchestra. Although serious collectors will want to get the comprehensive Classics releases, this is a perfect place for more general listeners to begin. Hawkins' three biggest hits ("Tuxedo Junction," "After Hours," and "Tippin' In") lead off the set which otherwise has highlights from 1938-42. With the exception of 1945's "Tippin' In" (which features some memorable lead alto by Bobby Smith), all of Hawkins' key soloists are here, including the leader and Dud Bascomb on trumpets, either Paul Bascomb or Julian Dash on tenor, baritonist Haywood Henry, and pianist Avery Parrish (who made "After Hours" famous). Timeless swing. ~ Scott Yanow

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Watch Your Step was a 1982 album by Ted Hawkins, a collection of previously recorded songs. From his obscure beginnings in Biloxi, Mississippi; to playing on the streets of Venice, California for small change; to experiencing notoriety in Europe as thousands flocked to his concerts before his untimely death: Ted Hawkins lived what he sang; of that, there is no doubt. His powerful, soulful voice awed listeners as he shared his beautifully troubled world. For the first-time fans can experience Watch Your Step on a 180gm vinyl. Ted Hawkins was born in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was an enigmatic figure for most of his career. He split his time between his adopted hometown of Venice Beach, California, where he was a mostly anonymous street performer, and Europe and Australia, where he and his songs were better known and well received in clubs and small concert halls.

Coleman Hawkins was a hugely influential exponent of the tenor saxophone in jazz, being widely regarded as the first artist to establish the instrument as an essential component of the genre's sound. Beginning his career in the early days of jazz in the late '20s, he became a major figure during the swing and big band eras spanning WWII, but also made a significant contribution to the bebop scene into the 1950s. His distinctive but highly adaptable style and sound enabled him to perform over the years in small bands and large orchestras alike both as sideman, leader and featured soloist, and this collection draws on examples of all those elements of his career, from his early recordings with Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra in 1927 through to bebop sessions alongside lush recordings with strings in the mid-'50s. It's a great value 48-track 2-CD, and along the way, there are contributions from many great names of the genre, too numerous to list here, but including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, Cozy Cole, J.J. Johnson, Charlie Christian, Benny Carter, and many more. It's a worthy addition to the Fabulous label's Jazz Legends series. It does not duplicate any tracks included on our existing Fabulous label Coleman Hawkins CD 'Bean Soup' (FABCD 136).

Alexander Hawkins is a creative epicentre from the London jazz scene and is regarded in the UK as one of the most innovative musicians of the younger generation with a surprising radius of action. He plays with Evan Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, Taylor Ho Bynum, Louis Moholo, Shabaka Hutchings and Elaine Mitchener. 'Iron into Wind' is the name of his new piano solo. The phrase "Iron into Wind" evokes for him both the transience of improvisation and a fascination with solid material, represented by the powerful blocks of sound to be heard in several of these pieces. Richard Willimas writes in the liner notes: "The mood varies from the two-handed avant-gospel figurations of "Congregational" to the hurtling "�tude" via the austere ruminations of "Tumble Mono", the knotted blues of "Strange Courage" and the explosive accelerations of "It Should Be a Song", with a diversion, in "Pleasant Constellation", by way of variations on an element from Sun Ra's "Fate in a Pleasant Mood". What he achieves here is a fine balance of all his interests, creating a self-portrait of a wonderfully inventive modern musician."

After the album "Togetherness Music", British pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins presents another musical panorama: An ensemble in which his trio with bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis meets saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings, guitarist Otto Fischer, and drummer Richard Ol�t�nd� Baker. For anybody who has followed Hawkins's work since his emergence on the British improvised music scene in the mid 2000's this is a fresh band full of familiar musicians with whom Hawkins has played in a wide variety of formations. The new pieces "Break a Vase" presents emerge from Hawkins' own imagination, but they also capture the thrust of energy in collaborating with these outstanding musicians. "Hawkins gives one of his most complete performances to date," writes Kevin Le Gendre in the liner notes. "Nothing is perhaps more majestic than the title track, which comes from Derek Walcott's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize. 'Break a Vase, and the love that re - assembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took it's symmetry for granted when it was whole.' Enjoy then all these wily bits and pieces that come together in the kind of daring, courageous construction that is made to last."

Sofia Jernberg and Alexander Hawkins are among the most multifaceted and expressive musical personalities with a surprising radius of action. Swedish singer Sofia Jernberg explores the boundaries of vocal technique in a variety of creative contexts, ranging from Sch�nberg's Pierrot Lunaire to Mats Gustafsson's Fire! Orchestra. Alexander Hawkins is often described as unrivaled in modern creative music and is considered one of it's most innovative and imaginative pianists and composers. In the duo, traditional songs from Ethiopia, Armenia, Sweden and elsewhere become the starting point for the development of an exciting and very personal sound world. David Toop writes in the liner notes: "Where is home, where is return for the scattered? Soft and crystalline, a music of edges, silence and tangential shoots, Musho dwells in these questions, invites the listener to consider displacement, migration, identity, responsibility, bloody history, the seepage of culture and community, but more than that, invites listening." Musho is predictably a fantastic work of contemporary music.

British pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins is a creative epicenter of the London jazz scene and is regarded as one of the most innovative musicians with a surprising radius of action. His trio with Neil Charles and Stephen Davis was formed in 2012 and masterfully celebrates the connection of freedom and structure, composition and improvisation. Carnival Celestial is a fantastic work of musical presence and impressively proves what is possible with piano, bass and drums - one of the more convention-laden formats in jazz practice. "Hawkins, Charles, and Davis clearly have moved the piano trio forward and stretched it's conceptual horizons with Carnival Celestial, and in doing so, they have contributed to it's ongoing vitality," writes Bill Shoemaker in the liner notes.

W. Dizzy Gillespie, Ben Webster, Max Roach+ 1944.

Rare live performances from 1950-1958 featuring Bean a.k.a. Coleman Hawkins with such sidemen as Pee Wee Russell, Charlie Shavers, J.C. Higginbotham and others. Includes some of his best-known tunes, too- Body and Soul; the Man I Love, and a seven and a half minute rendition of Avalon !

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Recorded in 1962, Cole Hawkins Quartet featuring Tommy Flanagan (piano), Major Holley (bass) and Eddie Locke (drums) puts forth an easily palatable selection of repertoire, with up-tempo moments like "Go Li'l Liza," and "Swingin' Scotch," alongside a trio of ballads including Quincy Jones' "Quintessence."

Vinyl LP pressing. As critic Nat Hentoff makes clear, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster were larger than life. Formidable, even forbidding presences, they revealed a depth of feeling in their playing that spoke of their vast life experiences, as great writers or painters speak through their work. Recorded in 1957.

Classical Music