Hawk at the Metropol in Oslo, 1963

On January 26, 1963, Coleman Hawkins arrived in Norway on a Scandinavian tour. He had first visited Norway, Sweden and Denmark in the mid-1930s when he was met by huge crowds. In 1963, he was in Norway to play two concerts celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Oslo's Big Chief Jazz Club.

The nightclub was founded by Eivind Solberg, a New Orleans-style trumpeter who started the Big Chief Jazz Band in 1951. He had been friends with Louis Armstrong and operated several other key jazz venues in the city, including the Kunstnerkroa, Oslo Jazz Circle, the Metropol Jazz Center and Downtown. Backing Hawkins at the concerts held at Oslo University were Swedish pianist Goran Lindberg and Norwegian bassist Jarle Krogstad and drummer Ole Jacob Hansen (d).

Then Hawk left for Sweden, where he played for a week run at the Golden Circle in Stockholm. When he returned to Norway on February 3, he played for six days at the Metropol Jazz Club (above), backed by Einar Iverson (p), Jarle Krogstad (b) and Ole Jacob Hansen (d).

Yesterday, Danilo Morandi in Switzerland sent me a link to a video of Hawkins playing a 10-minute Body and Soul during his appearance at the Metropol taped by NRK, the Norwegian Radio-TV network. I have no idea what other songs were on the set list or if more NRK footage was released or is in a vault.

Here's Hawk at the Metropol...