[Dixielandjazz] Body and Soul / Hawkins

[Rob McCallum]

Hello all,

This certainly is a wonderfully constructed solo and certainly deserves it's
place in jazz history.  The melody is used as an initial idea and the solo
just seems to grow from there.  I hear it as a continually developing
melodic line, though it is developing closely with the chord changes.
Hawkins does some really interesting things, one is playing over the
barlines, and through the different parts of the form.  Notice how his
melody just keeps going.  He doesn't end his ideas and start a new idea on
beat one of the first bar the second time through, for example.  The melody
he's creating just flows right over it.  Notice also how he interprets a
scale pattern (which I think comes in the middle of the first A section the
second time through the form).  He plays that straight pattern, but the way
he phrases and varies the attack turns a very academic thing into a very
musical thing.

There are so many nuances in this piece it's difficult to describe with
words.  I particularly like the way he goes into the cadenza at the end.
The improv never sounds forced, but rather very natural and expressive.

All the best,
Rob McCallum