"I didn't even bother to listen to it afterwards. Got through playing it, packed up my horn and walked out." - Coleman Hawkins (on his legendary recording of "Body and Soul")
With no rehearsal and just one take, Hawkins captured musical lightning. “His eyes were closed,” his pianist Gene Rodgers recalled, “and he just played as if he was in heaven.”
God said to Coleman "Trust Me" and Coleman said, "I hear you Lord"
This......is the epitome of feeling, and soul. What a masterpiece. It’s so classic, and so bouncy, but so relaxing. Unbelievable. It will forever be one the best jazz pieces of all time.
well...the most difficult thing to me is to think, that by the time this record was done the bop hadn't been born. You know, Bird, Dizzy, Miles, created modern jazz language. We used to hear phrases and licks from them. And Hawkins composed his solo when that language, that licks that are in our subconciosness just didn't exist. Unbelievable.
THERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A DEBATE ABOUT WHO WAS THE GREATEST TENOR GUY. WHAT I SAY TO THAT IS RELAX AND ENJOY THEM ALL. THEY WERE ALL GREAT. I THANK GOD FOR LETTING US HEAR THEM ALL.