Answer the questions below and the discussion. 1. What did Benny Goodman do after his “Let’s Dance” show was cancelled and how did this lead to his being “crowned” the “King of Swing”? 2.
Coleman Hawkins The Rise of the Saxophone Today when we think “jazz” we often think “saxophones”. In early New Orleans and Chicago jazz a lot of the heroes were trumpet/coronet players. Our first swing stars (Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw) are clarinetists. The swing era sees the rise of the saxophone. While the mid 1930s through the mid 1940s is known mostly for the big dance bands of the time, small groups were still working and popular. Benny Goodman had his quartets and quintets as did many others. In Kansas Cit y, where the music relied heavily on blues and improvisation, late night cutting contests were almost the city’s unofficial sport. These late night jam sessions would last for hours.Often, these were not friendly, supportive learning sessions. These were all out battles leaving a last man standing. When a newcomer came on stage to play with the top players those players would do everything they could to embarrass and humiliate the rookie. They call tunes in unfamiliar keys, or count them off really fast or call tunes that they figured the new guy wouldn’t know. Two saxophonists with very different sounds and approaches emerge from these battles to become jazz’s first saxophone heroes: Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. Coleman Hawkins - Coleman Hawkins also known as “Hawk” or “Bean” was born in Missouri (1904). Out of high school he was playing in local dance bands when the great blues singer Mamie Smith asked him to join her. That gig took him north to an eventual ten year stint with F letcher Henderson’s band. He was in Fletcher’s band while Louis Armstrong passed through and, most likely, developed some techniques and ideas from him. He had a hard, propulsive attack with a wide vibrato. Over time, Hawkins developed a solo style that w as rooted in the harmonic progression of the song. His fluent knowledge of chord building and chord substitution allowed him to develop solos that had very little to do with the original melody of the song and much more to do with the underlying harmony. H is 1939 recording of the jazz standard “Body and Soul” is now considered a masterpiece and firmly solidified his standing as a jazz saxophone master. In the recording the actual melody of the tune is barely stated at all and “Bean” quickly goes off into ne w harmonic explorations of the tunes chord progression. Never the less the song was a big hit and caused countless young sax players to wear their records out trying to figure out what Hawkins was thinking. Lester Young Lester Young - Lester Young also known as “Prez” and “Pork Pie Hat” (for “The President of the Saxophone” and for the hat he usually wore) had a smooth melodic style.
Often his improvisations were based on variations of the melody itself. Young referred to soloing as telling stories. Young didn’t accept Hawkin’s staccato, hard, chord based style of playing. The music he was hearing in his head was more linear and melodic. His early heroes were Bix Biederbecke and Frankie Trumbauer , often described as jazz’s first “cool” players. In 1934 “Prez” joined Count Basie’s band in Kansas City. Basie’s powerful yet cool sound was perfect for Young. Saxophonists of the day usually broke solidly into two camps: Lester Young’s cool, melodic style or Coleman Hawkins’ harder edged, harmonic styl e. “Bean” “Prez” in his pork pie hat
