SŁAWEK PEZDA – TRIBUTE TO TENOR LEGENDS vol. 6: COLEMAN HAWKINS

Sławek Pezda – tenor sax
Mateusz Gawęda – piano
Piotr Południak – double bass
Dawid Fortuna– drums

*tickets: 35/40 pln

Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed “Bean,” or simply “Hawk,” was the first important tenor saxophonist in jazz. Sometimes called the “father of the tenor sax,” Hawkins is one of jazz’s most influential and revered soloists. An improviser with an encyclopedic command of chords and harmonies, Hawkins played a formative role over a 40-year (1925-1965) career spanning the emergence of recorded jazz through the swing and bebop eras.

Joining Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra in 1924, Hawkins matured into the leading jazz saxophonist of his generation, establishing a expressive range and tone that freed the instrument from its earlier slap-tongued vaudeville usage. The emergence of bebop, or modern jazz, in the 1940s, demonstrated Hawkins’ formidable musicianship and artistic sophistication. Hawkins’ landmark “Body and Soul” (1938) is often cited as a turning point in jazz history, enabling jazz innovators such as Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie to explore a new, intellectually and technically demanding jazz vocabulary that emphasized improvisation and harmonic structure over melody.

Hawkins elevated the saxophone from the status of a marching band curiosity to that of the quintessential jazz instrument. While never achieving Louis Armstrong’s popular appeal, Hawkins acquired the status of an elder statesman among his peers.

Sławek Pezda  – saxophonist, graduate of the Academy of Music in Krakow. He is a laureate of many prestigious competitions such as Jazz Juniors, Tarnów Jazz Contest, Krokus Jazz Festival, Klucz do Kariery, Novum Jazz Festival, Baszta Jazz Festival, Art Of Improvisation. Currently, he co-creates bands such as Mike Parker’s Trio Theory with which he played several hundred concerts in Europe, Pezda / Gawęda Duo and his own project – The Flash!