Ben Webster and Georgie Auld (at that time 35 and 25 years old) both came from the Hawk tradition of tenor playing, with full, fat, rich, robust tones, a lot of vibrato and growl. This is the first time each of these men played with Hawkins and this Apollo session produced an unorthodox front line - trumpet and three tenor saxophones.
The accompaniment was provided by Billy Rowland (p), Hy White (g), Israel Crosby (b) and Specs Powell (d), which was at that time the rhythm section of Raymond Scott's group.
As John Chilton writes in his book The Song Of The Hawk:
"The session started after midnight so as to allow George Auld time to get from the Apollo Theatre, where he was leading his own band, to the Apollo recording studio."
There were 4 songs recorded on this session, Pick Up Boys (refers to the fact that bands put together for a special occasion are called pickup bands), Porgy, Uptown Lullaby and Salt Peanuts.
During this session, each of the tenor men played with their distinctive styles, even though some had a "better day" than the others - especially Ben Webster felt a little out of form and luck on this date.
But nevertheless - these recordings offer an interesting view on Coleman Hawkins and the effect he had on the younger players, who clearly owe much of their playing to the Hawk.
From this session, I offer 2 transcriptions, to compare and show Hawk's style and what he played, that had the ultimate effect of mastery, once again assuring himself as the father of the tenor saxophone. Hawk's harmonic knowledge is especially shown in Pick Up Boys, where compared to Auld's solo, which is mostly growly and almost strictly diatonical, Hawk uses a lot of tritone substitution and chormaticism.
Enjoy!
Salt Peanuts (Coleman Hawkins solo, in tenor G major):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ6gTDvPRnU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhEMq8FmQGA
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