Reissues in this series either catch an artist at a crucial developmental phase, or when they already have it all together. Hawkins virtually created the tenor vocabulary in the 1920s, recording with Fletcher Henderson and various pickup groups, and retained his status as the originating voice on his instrument throughout five years in Europe and a further decade back in the States.

But, despite being prolific on record till then, he fell out of fashion in the late 1940s, until the tide turned in the mid-1950s and his eminence was recognised in another prolific decade in the studio. The first of these four albums, entitled The Hawk in Hi-Fi, was RCA’s attempt to give him a very mid-1950s ‘welcome back’ but with rather cluttered arrangements for either brass or strings-based ensembles.

He performs particularly well on several ballads, and of interest is the remake of his famous standard ‘Body And Soul’, including 40 seconds of unaccompanied cadenza. By contrast, his original ballad ‘The Essence Of You’ is enunciated by the strings with his tenor only appearing in a central solo. John S Wilson’s reproduced sleeve-note doesn’t identify the original titles of either ‘The Bean Stalks Again’ or ‘39”-25”-39”’ (who?) as ‘Feedin’ The Bean’ and ‘Bean And The Boys’ – did I mention that ‘Bean’ was Hawk’s nickname?

The other three albums are all from the Prestige stable, namely Soul, At East With Coleman Hawkins and The Hawk Relaxes. Reflecting the mainstream leanings of their new late-1950s producer Esmond Edwards, all feature Hawk as the sole horn with rhythm-sections led by Flanagan, Bryant and Bright (note the young Andrew Cyrille on the last date).

A jam-session feel pervades the relatively relaxed, ballad-prone repertoire and, despite excellent playing by those pianists and Burrell on two dates, the tenorman turns in characteristically professional performances without sounding particularly stretched.

For collectors, it’s worth pointing out that Avid’s two previous Hawkins compilations (both now out-of-print, I believe) are worth seeking out, whereas this one is presentable, but non-essential.