In jazz, there are a handful of recording sessions that have taken on an almost mythical status, either moving the music forward or being subject to various rumours (or both) – Louis Armstrong’s “West End Blues”, Charlie Parker’s “Lover Man”, Miles Davis’s “Bags Groove”, “So What” and “Right Off”, John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”.

Coleman Hawkins’ 11 October 1939 rendering of “Body And Soul” fits the bill too. Born 21 November 1904 in St Joseph, Missouri, the tenor sax legend’s ingenious lines and big tone influenced Sonny Rollins, Archie Shepp, James Carter and David Murray, and he was a key mentor to Miles during the mid-1940s. Paul Gonsalves once called Hawkins “the Duke Ellington of the saxophone” – and he should know – though that was also partly due to his sharp dress sense.

Hawkins made his name as a soloist in the Fletcher Henderson big band between 1924 and 1934, then moved to Europe for five years. Upon his return to the U.S., he quickly became a key turn on Norman Granz’s famous Jazz At The Philharmonic tours. But by 1957, Granz was focusing on his never-more-popular Verve label, and he teamed Hawkins with another great tenor sax hero, Ben Webster, for “Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster”, recorded at Hollywood’s Capitol Studios on 16 October (remarkably, Hawkins found time to record a whole other album, “The Genius”, on the same day).

In October 1957, Hawkins was 52 years old and at the top of his game, fresh from collaborating with Thelonious Monk on the epochal “Monk’s Music” (meanwhile Miles and John Coltrane had just recorded their own classics: “Miles Ahead” and “Blue Train”). Webster was four years Hawkins’ junior and arrived with his own formidable reputation, outlined in Nat Hentoff’s liner notes for “Encounters”. Webster and Hawkins were joined by a dream rhythm section led by pianist Oscar Peterson: guitarist Herb Ellis, drummer Alvin Stoller and bassist Ray Brown.

“Encounters” features a pristine mix with judicious instrument separation and much reliance on Capitol’s famous echo chamber, particularly contributing to Hawkins’ gargantuan tenor sound. Opener “Blues For Yolande” is quite simply an all-time Verve classic. Miles has occasionally been scathing about Peterson’s blues playing (especially in a 1958 Jazz Review interview with Hentoff) but the pianist and drummer Stoller play a blinder here, both admirably restrained. Meanwhile Hawkins lays down one of his most memorable solos on record, including a famous, impassioned four-bar repeated lick. Also listen out for Hawkins and Webster’s crafty reimagining of the final chorus, with a slightly altered rhythm feel.

Jazz has seldom been as elegant as “La Rosita”, with its famous two-tenor harmonising, while the moving “It Never Entered My Mind” gives Miles’s two famous versions a run for their money. Elsewhere “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To” and “Shine On Harvest Moon” are subtle and uplifting; Peterson gives a comping masterclass on both whilst Webster’s opening salvo on the former is one of the most graceful solos of his distinguished career.

Hawkins and Webster would collaborate several more times after “Encounters”, including a touching appearance with Billie Holiday during “The Sound Of Jazz” CBS telecast on 4 December 1957, the same day as Miles recorded the “L’Ascenseur pour l’echafaud” soundtrack in Paris. Hawkins then continued his purple patch, recording over 20 albums as leader or co-leader between 1959 and 1963. He also performed regularly with Oscar Peterson through the 1960s, including a famous London Queen Elizabeth Hall gig in 1967.

Coleman “Bean” Hawkins died on 19 May 1969. He’d been witness to a fair few new movements in jazz and instigated a few others, but always went his own sweet way. As he said in a 1963 DownBeat interview: “It’s not a question of being modern. It’s just music – adventure. That’s what music is – adventure.”

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Matt Phillips is a London-based writer and musician whose work has appeared in Jazzwise, Classic Pop, Record Collector and The Oldie. He’s the author of “John McLaughlin: From Miles & Mahavishnu to the 4th Dimension” and “Level 42: Every Album, Every Song”.

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_{Header image: Coleman Hawkins (William P. Gottlieb / Library of Congress). Ben Webster (National Jazz Archive/Heritage Images via Getty Images).}