in New York City

from Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It, page 208:

When I came into New York I was asking Louis [Armstrong] one night about the different guys in the Fletcher Henderson band. He told me about Big Charlie Green and about a tenor saxophone player--Hawkins--he said that guy really swings. That was the first time I heard the word used that way, and I didn't dig what he meant. Louis tried to explain it. He said, "Man, he swings! He swings out of this world!". I caught on to what he meant, because after I got to work that night I heard Hawkins. So I knew what he meant. How would I define it now? Swing. A guy that's… I still have to use the…   more >>

cite as

Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro, Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It (London, 1992), p. 208. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1435153052078 accessed: 28 March, 2024

location of experience: New York City

Listening to

hide composers
tenor saxophone music performed by Coleman Hawkins

Experience Information

Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by 5011Henning on Wed, 24 Jun 2015 14:37:32 +0100
Approved on Tue, 30 Aug 2016 13:04:16 +0100