Tenor great
Coleman Hawkins was usually bored with the blues, at least until the period covered by this CD sampler. A master at deciphering complex chord changes,
Hawkins found the blues to be overly simple but around 1957 (after 35 years of major league activity) he began to explore the blues more seriously, at least on an occasional basis. This CD has nine performances from as many sessions. The music is consistently excellent (particularly "Juicy Fruit," the lengthy "Blues For Tomorrow" which also features
John Coltrane, "Stealin' The Bean" with trumpeter
Charlie Shavers and a pair of collaborations with fellow tenor
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis), but it is recommended that listeners (beginners and experts alike) instead acquire the complete sessions, since the blues were only a small aspect of the
Coleman Hawkins story. ~ Scott Yanow