Body & Soul [RCA] (1939)

About this title: Ignoring past reissues (including a definitive two-CD set from 1995 that had 40 recordings), RCA came out with this 19-selection single CD in 1996; all of the performances were in the previous reissue. If found at a budget price, this CD can act as a fine introduction to the great tenor Coleman Hawkins. Among its high points are two very different versions of "Body and Soul" and classic renditions of "When Day Is Done," "The Sheik of Araby," and the modernistic "Half Step Down, Please," an appealing "I Love Paris," and a few numbers with strings and woodwinds. The music dates from 1939-1940, ... read more

Tracks:

1. Meet Doctor Foo [Hawkins]
2. Fine Dinner [Hawkins]
3. She's Funny That Way [Moret/Whiting]
4. Body and Soul [Eyton/Green/Heyman/]
5. When Day Is Done [Katscher/DeSylva]
6. The Sheik of Araby [Wheeler/Smith/Snyde]
7. My Blue Heaven [Whiting/Donaldson]
8. Bouncing with Bean [Hawkins]
9. Say It Isn't So [Berlin]
10. Spotlite [Hawkins]
11. April in Paris [Harburg/Duke]
12. How Strange [Traditional]
13. Half Step Down, Please [Dameron/Hawkins]
14. Angel Face [Hawkins/Jones]
15. There Will Never Be Another You [Warren/Gordon]
16. The Bean Stalks Again [Hawkins]
17. Body and Soul [Eyton/Green/Heyman/]
18. I Love Paris [Porter]
19. Under Paris Skies [Gannon/Drejac/Girau]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.