Backgrounder: Coleman Hawkins 'Desafinado' 1962

Over two days In September 1962, Impulse producer Bob Thiele brought Coleman Hawkins into Rudy Van Gelder's recording studio in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., for a bossa nova session. By then, Paul Winter, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims and Herbie Mann, among others, had recorded albums using the new Brazilian rhythm. The key question was whether the old-school Hawkins would grasp how to play the light, hip new sound.

Thiele was convinced he would, and he was right. Hawkins had set the standard for jazz improvisation in 1939 with his hit recording of Body and Soul and he had been an early bebop influencer. Thiele had Manny Albam whip up arrangements on chosen songs.

On the two dates were Hawkins (ts), Howard Collins and Barry Galbraith (g), Major Holley (b), Eddie Locke (d,perc), Tommy Flanagan (claves) and Willie Rodriguez (perc). The songs that were given the bossa nova treatment were Desafinado, I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover, Albam's Samba Para Bean, I Remember You, One Note Samba, O Pato, Un Abraco No Bonfa and Hawkins's Stumpy Bossa Nova.

This album shouldn't have worked but it did splendidly and was celebrated by critics from the day it hit the market two months later in 1962. Hawk, it turned out, knew exactly how to blow smooth and surf the rhythm without forfeiting his style or sound.

Here is the full album without ad interruptions...