Moving onto the next batch of records.  This time, Eddie Harris through Coleman Hawkins.

The Eddie Harris record is, of course swinging and adventurous, but what makes it so surprising is Eddie’s piano player.  This is a duo record with Ellis Marsalis, and it’s fantastic.  Homecoming was presented to me by a friend who loves the jazz avant garde as a sort of vindication.  After all, the Marsalis family has not exactly been a champion of free music, and yet, there are free tracks on this record!  Ellis plays the free stuff fantastically, of course, and Eddie Harris is flawless.

Hampton Hawes – The East/West Controversy – This album is insane.  Hawes seems to have done the impossible, adopting Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker’s signature bebop phrases into his own playing.  That is, Hawes doesn’t just play bebop lines, he plays trumpet and saxophone gestures on the piano.  It’s great.  And Paul Chambers is a treat – he sounds amazing as always.

Coleman Hawkins

• Body and Soul – I think this was my first Hawk record, and I’m sure I got it because of the classic 1939 recording of Body and Soul, but the other tracks are fantastic.  Subtitled, “A Jazz Autobiography”, this record tracks his development from a slap-tonguing saxophone player in Fletcher Henderson’s band, to the standard bearer for saxophone players to come – that is, right up to the Sonny Meets Hawk sessions (required listening for all humans).  Great collection.
• Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter – This collection is amazing.  It contains so many classics, and such exceptional performances from both Hawk and Benny, and also from Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelly (sic), Buck Clayton, Ben Webster and Sid Catlett.  Really great.
• Recordings Made Between 1030 and 1941 – This French CBS 2LP set has still more great Hawk recordings.  There are a couple cuts by The Chocolate Dandies, featuring Benny Carter and John Kirby; Red McKenzie’s Mound City Blue Blowers, starring the very bizarre sounding Red McKenzie himself, and Muggsy (sic) Spanier and Jimmy Dorsey; Henry “Red” Allen Orchestra, featuring Russell Procope and John Kirby; Benny Goodman with Gene Krupa and Mildred Bailey; and Hawk’s own group, with Billy Taylor and J.C. Heard.  Totally swinging, and probably essential.
• Hollywood Stampede (Capitol Jazz Classics Vol. 5) – There was a period of time when I was trying to become a Capitol Jazz Classics completist.  Every single one of these records is amazing, and this one certainly is in the top 5% of all of them.  Howard McGhee is soooo Dizzy Gillespie on this record it’s wrong.  Totally swinging album.  Oscar Pettiford continues to be an MVP.  This also has a great version of the Monk tune “Rifftide,” aka “Hackensack.”
• And his friends AT A FAMOUS JAZZ PARTY – This seems to be a jam sessions, and is probably a boot leg.  But it is slammin’!  Hawk and Lester Young on the same record!  Charlie Shavers sounds great!  Maybe a young Sarah Vaughan?  Date?  No idea.  But there is some pretty serious bebop on this record, too.  So, mid/late-1940s?
• Jazz At the Philharmonic: The Coleman Hawkins Set – When I finally get to the JATP section, there will be a ton of records to talk about.  And maybe this one should be in there, but since it is all revolving around Hawk, and he’s the leader/main soloist for the cuts, and the title of the album is The Coleman Hawkins Set, we’ll just leave it right here.  Great, great, swinging record, but that’s what you would expect from the JATP cats.  Ray Brown, Hank Jones, Roy Eldridge, and the MJQ (John Lewis, Percy Heath, Connie Kay)…they rule.  There’s a nice recording of “Rifftide” aka “Hackensack,” composed by Monk.  And I’m starting to think that the obligatory “Body and Soul” must end with the same, solo saxophone vertical spelling of the final cadence.  Like, “Cats, this is how I end it,” you dig?
• Rare Broadcasts Area 1950 – On the Jazz Anthology label, and featuring almost no information, the Google has produced a bit of help.  It’s 1958, from TV, and has an unlikely line-up of older cats like J.C. Higgenbotham and Charlie Shavers with the upstart brothers Nat and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley.  Both Hawk AND Lester Young sound unbelievable.  This thing is required listening, totally swinging, and absent almost all pertinent details.  I mean, good God, who is this drummer?
• The Hawk Flies – A repackaging of several records.  Most notably on this 2fer are several recordings with a young Thelonious Monk, and a few of his originals.  Strangely, “I Mean You” has no Monk on it, but does have a very elaborate and super hip shout chorus.  Also, Idrees Sulieman’s circular breathing on “Juicy Fruit” is pretty slick.
• Hawk in Germany – Should be great, right?  Hawk, Bud Powell, Oscar Pettiford, Kenny Clark?  Burning, or at least, it should be.  But man, both Powell and OP sound, um…well, let’s just say, not that great.  Ok, maybe that’s not fair.  OP warms up, and his “Willow Weep for Me” is pretty delicious.  But overall, meh.  It’s also a funny album title, since Hawk only shows up at the very end of side 1.
• Night Hawk – One of the most fascinating things about this record is the Ron Carter performance.  This is 1960, and so 2-3 years before he got the Miles Davis gig.  And, he’s just a pup, at 23 years old on this recording, but playing with more senior cats, like Hawk (way more!), Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, and Tommy Flanagan.  Really solid, interesting record.  No huge surprises or scary moments, really, but a nice date.  “In A Mellow Tone” is super swinging and has some nice kicks and a really cool reharm built into the arrangement.
• Jazz Reunion – And last, but not least, Jazz Reunion.  This album is fantastic.  Pee Wee Russell plays great, and he’s like the most adorable old man in jazz history.  Bob Brookmeyer kills it, as usual.  Milt Hinton is the Judge.  Jo Jones swings like crazy.  Emmett Berry and Nat Pierce are also amazing, but wow, in that line up, they sort of fade into the background.  And if ever there was a question about how hip Hawk was – which would immediately be answered by any number of amazing recordings (with Sonny Meets Hawk at the top of the list), the end of his first phrase on the first tune of this record, “If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight),” is hipper than 95% of the phrases any one else in history has ever played.  I may be overstating things somewhat.  But you get that it’s insanely hip, right?