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Coleman Randolph Hawkins was born on
November 21, 1904 in St. Joseph, Missouri. He is considered to be the Father
of the Tenor Saxophone.
Coleman's mother was musically inclined
and she began teaching him to play the piano when he was just five
years old. Coleman learned to play the cello at age seven and he began
playing tenor saxophone at age nine. Coleman studied music at
Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas and pioneered the Solo Saxophone.
In 1913 saxophone players were considered second string and the
saxophone was thought to be a marching band instrument only. Coleman's
expertise with the saxophone soon changed that perception.
In 1921 Coleman joined Mamie
Smith's Blues Band and followed the band to New York City
in 1923. He left Smith's band shortly after arriving in New York and
joined Fletcher
Henderson's Swing Band. He played with Henderson from 1923
to 1934. Louis Armstrong
joined the band in 1924 and was a major influence on Coleman's future
playing style. Many of the new generation of Jazz soloists such as Miles
Davis and Dizzy
Gillespie credit Coleman with being a major influence on
their styles.
Coleman recorded the ballad One
Hour with Red
McKenzie in 1929 and toured Great Britain, Holland, and
France from 1934 to 1939, returning to the United States only when war
seemed eminent in Europe. He formed his own band and recorded
his first top of the charts hit, Body and Soul in 1939.
The band broke up in 1940 and for the rest of his career Coleman
played primarily as a solo artist.
Coleman recorded Woody and You
with Dizzy Gillespie in 1944 and also played briefly with Thelonious
Monk. Coleman continued to record in the years 1946 to
1966 and made several more European tours.
Coleman Hawkins began drinking heavily
in the mid sixties. He died of liver disease on May 19, 1969 in New
York, New York.
Sources:
Encyclopedia
Britannica
Encyclopedia
Africana
Atlanta
Music Group (AMG)
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