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This relaxed, sensitive masterpiece is full of lyricism and warmth.On October 16, 1957, one of the great studio sessions of the decade took place in Capitol’s famous studios in Hollywood. The brilliant tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins spent much of the day and evening in the studios recording two separate albums with producer Norman Granz for Verve Records: The Genius Of Coleman Hawkins and Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster. The 52-year-old Hawkins was there, working with pianist Oscar Peterson’s regular trio of Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), and drummer Alvin Stoller. The musicians recorded twelve songs that were released...

On August 18, 1962, The Duke Ellington Octet featuring Coleman Hawkins were in a New York recording studio, busy making an album for the Impulse! label. Impulse! was still a relatively new imprint at the time, having issued its first four albums in early 1961. Joining Ellington and Hawk were Ray Nance (cornet, violin), Lawrence Brown (trombone), Johnny Hodges (alto sax), Harry Carney (baritone sax, bass clarinet), Aaron Bell (bass), and Sam Woodyard (drums). The result was Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins, an album the New York Times described as “one of the great Ellington albums, one of the great...

The series continues throughout 2022 with titles by Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, and many more. Published on May 5, 2022By Paul Sexton'Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins artwork - Courtesy: Verve/UMe'Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins' artwork - Courtesy: Verve/UMe Verve/UMe’s all-analog vinyl reissue series Acoustic Sounds has confirmed its next set of audiophile pressings of significant and beloved jazz recordings. On the back of nearly two dozen releases to date, each painstakingly remastered from the original tapes, the series continues with the May 13 appearance of the 1963 Impulse! release Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins. The storied Impulse! label was the...

For decades jazz cognoscenti have talked reverently of “the Savory Collection.” Recorded from radio broadcasts in the late 1930s by an audio engineer named William Savory... only a handful of people had ever heard even the smallest fraction of that music, adding to its mystique. After 70 years that wait has now ended. This year the National Jazz Museum in Harlem acquired the entire set of nearly 1,000 discs, made at the height of the swing era, and has begun digitizing recordings of inspired performances by Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan,...