COLEMAN HAWKINS Biography - Musicians

 
 

Biography » musicians » coleman hawkins

COLEMAN HAWKINS

Name: Coleman Hawkins                                                                 
Birth name: Coleman Randolph Hawkins                                                   
Born: 21 November 1904 Saint Joseph, Missouri                                         
Died: 19 May 1969 (aged 64)                                                           
Genre(s): Swing music, Bebop                                                           
Instrument: tenor saxophone                                                           
                                                                                       
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904-May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and       
sometimes "Bean", was a prominent jazz tenor saxophonist.                             
                                                                                       
He is commonly regarded as the first important and influential jazz musician to       
use the instrument: Joachim E. Berendt wrote, "there were some tenor players           
before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn".                     
                                                                                       
While Hawkins is most strongly associated with the swing music and big band era,       
he began playing professionally in the early 1920s and was important in the           
development of bebop in the 1940s. He continued to be influenced by the avant-garde   
jazz of the 1950s and '60s.