Coleman Hawkins – At Ease With Coleman Hawkins - Moodsville, Vol. 7
Coleman Hawkins – tenor saxophone [click here to see more vinyl featuring Coleman Hawkins]
Tommy Flanagan – piano [click here to see more vinyl featuring Tommy Flanagan]
Wendell Marshall – bass
Osie Johnson – drums
Written by George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin (A1), William Engvick, Morty Palitz, Alec Wilder (A2), Yip Harburg, Arthur Schwartz (A3), Ethelbert Nevin, Frank Lebby Stanton (A4), Charles Wakefield Cadman, Nelle Richmond Eberhart (B1), Alec Wilder (B2), John Golden, Raymond Hubbell (B3), Fred E. Ahlert, Roy Turk (B4)
1 LP, standard tip-on jacket
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33 RPM
Size : 12’’
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : Quality Record Pressings (QRP), Salina, Kansas, USA
Label : Moodsville – Acoustic Sounds Series
Original Label : Moodsville Records
Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on January 29, 1960
Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
Produced by Esmond Edwards
Photography by Don Schlitten
Liner notes by Ron Eyre
Design by Don Schlitten
Originally released in 1960
Reissued in November 2026
Tracks:
Side A:
1. For You, For Me, For Evermore
2. While We’re Young
3. Then I’ll Be Tired Of You
4. Mighty Like A Rose
Side B:
1. At Dawning
2. Trouble Is A Man
3. Poor Butterfly
4. I’ll Get By (As Long As I Have You)
Reviews:
Sax legend Coleman Hawkins could be fiercely aggressive in his playing; here he displays his tenderness. If ever there was a master of the ballad, it was Coleman Hawkins. His romantic style and sound caused one writer to say: "Hawk turned the saxophone into the sexophone."
Recorded in 1960 by the inimitable Rudy Van Gelder at his studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, At Ease with Coleman Hawkins finds tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins (nicknamed Hawk) effortlessly gliding through eight outstanding tracks in his trademark breathy tone.
At Ease was done for the Moodsville series but while Hawkins, with the expert help of his pianist, Tommy Flanagan, sets a mood on eight standards, it is never merely mood music.
Miles Davis once said, "When I heard Hawk, I learned to play ballads," and At Ease... shows why — at every turn — Hawkins blows with cool, understated beauty. Joined for this date by Flanagan on piano, Wendell Marshall on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums, Hawk turns in a laid-back, dream-like suite of ballads worthy of a spot in every sophisticated jazz fan's LP collection.
Ratings:
AllMusic : 3 / 5 ; Discogs : 4.5 / 5