Erskine Hawkins & His Orchestra

Trackimage Playbut Trackname Playbut Trackname
Tuxedo Junction 03:15 Tools
Tuxedo Junction - 1989 Remastered 00:00 Tools
After Hours 00:00 Tools
Tippin' In 00:00 Tools
Swing Out - Remastered 1989 00:00 Tools
Tuxedo Junction (1989 Remastered) 00:00 Tools
Rockin' Rollers' Jubilee (Remastered 1989) 00:00 Tools
Soft Winds 00:00 Tools
Rockin' Rollers' Jubilee 00:00 Tools
Caldonia 00:00 Tools
After Hours - Digitally Mastered - September 1991 00:00 Tools
Tippin' In - Digitally Mastered - September 1991 00:00 Tools
Don't Cry Baby - Digitally Mastered - September 1991 00:00 Tools
Easy Rider - Remastered 1989 00:00 Tools
Bicycle Bounce 00:00 Tools
Don't Cry Baby 00:00 Tools
Soft Winds - Digitally Mastered - September 1991 00:00 Tools
Rockin' Rollers' Jubilee - Remastered 1989 00:00 Tools
Sweet Georgia Brown - Digitally Mastered - September 1991 00:00 Tools
Blackout - Digitally Mastered - September 1991 00:00 Tools
Needle Points 00:00 Tools
Big John's Special 00:00 Tools
Bear Mash Blues - Digitally Mastered - September 1991 00:00 Tools
Good Dip 00:00 Tools
Uncle Bud 00:00 Tools
Gin Mill Special 00:00 Tools
Hawk's Boogie 00:00 Tools
Five O'Clock Whistle 00:00 Tools
Riff Time 00:00 Tools
Cherry 00:00 Tools
Swing Out 00:00 Tools
Sneakin' Out 00:00 Tools
Nona 00:00 Tools
Satan Does The Rhumba 00:00 Tools
Song Of The Wanderer 00:00 Tools
Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams 00:00 Tools
Shower 00:00 Tools
Shipyard Ramble 00:00 Tools
Lucky Seven (Bill's Tune) 00:00 Tools
Gabriel Meets The Duke 00:00 Tools
Midnight Stroll 00:00 Tools
Needle Points [Album Version] 00:00 Tools
Whispering Grass 00:00 Tools
Knock Me a Kiss - DJ Wuthe am Grammophon 00:00 Tools
The Bear Mash Blues 00:00 Tools
Holiday for Swing 00:00 Tools
Bear Mash Blues 00:00 Tools
Dolemite 00:00 Tools
Closing Theme: One O'Clock Jump 00:00 Tools
Country Boy 00:00 Tools
Don't Cry, Baby 00:00 Tools
Way Down Upon The Swanee River 00:00 Tools
Corn Bread 00:00 Tools
Sweet Georgia Brown 00:00 Tools
Tonight You Belong To Me 00:00 Tools
Knock Me a Kiss 00:00 Tools
Blue Sea 00:00 Tools
Jumpin’ In A Julep Joint 00:00 Tools
Jumpin' In A Julep Joint 00:00 Tools
Drifting Along 00:00 Tools
S'posin 00:00 Tools
I Know A Secret 00:00 Tools
Swing Out (Remastered 1989) 00:00 Tools
No Use Squakin 00:00 Tools
Lucky Seven 00:00 Tools
Gabriel's Heater 00:00 Tools
Uptown Shuffle 00:00 Tools
Trippin In 00:00 Tools
Until The Real Thing Comes Along 00:00 Tools
Night After Night 00:00 Tools
Easy Rider 00:00 Tools
Limehouse Blues 00:00 Tools
No Use Squawkin 00:00 Tools
Strictly Swing 00:00 Tools
Tippin' In (Digitally Mastered - September 1991) 00:00 Tools
Raid The Joint 00:00 Tools
Fifteen Years 00:00 Tools
Tuxedo junction - 1939 00:00 Tools
Five O'clock Whistle - Remastered 00:00 Tools
Big Wig In The Wigwam - Original 00:00 Tools
Someone's Rocking My Dreamboat 00:00 Tools
Big Wig In The Wigwam 00:00 Tools
Weary Blues 00:00 Tools
King Porter Stomp 00:00 Tools
Country Boys 00:00 Tools
Soft Winds (Digitally Mastered - September 1991) 00:00 Tools
Song Of The Wanderer (Where Shall I Go) 00:00 Tools
Midnight Stroll - Remastered 1998 00:00 Tools
Do You Wanna Jump, Chillun? 00:00 Tools
No Baby, Nobody But You 00:00 Tools
Five O'Clock Whistle - Original 00:00 Tools
Rockin' Roller's Jubilee 00:00 Tools
Opportunity 00:00 Tools
Knock Me a Kiss (DJ Wuthe am Grammophon) 00:00 Tools
Jubilee Hop 00:00 Tools
Norfolk Ferry 00:00 Tools
Big John's Special (80K M 3.01) 00:00 Tools
No Soap 00:00 Tools
Remember 00:00 Tools
Tippin’ In 00:00 Tools
A Study In Blue 00:00 Tools
Swingin' On Lenox Avenue - Original 00:00 Tools
  • 19,275
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  • 5,870
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  • 19275
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Jazz trumpeter Erskine Hawkins was born in Birmingham, Alabama July 26, 1914. A talented high-note trumpeter and a popular bandleader, Erskine Hawkins was nicknamed “The 20th Century Gabriel.” He learned drums and trombone before switching to trumpet when he was 13, and was one of five inaugural inductees into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1978. He also became on of the principal influences on a young rhythm and blues piano player named Ray Charles. While attending the Alabama State Teachers College, he became the leader of the college band, the Bama State Collegians. They went to New York in 1934, became the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, started making records in 1936 and by 1938 were quite successful. The first formal appearance of Erskine Hawkins and his Orchestra was in 1938 when the band won a recording contract with RCA Victor. However, the inception of the band had occurred two years earlier when it was known as The 'Bama State Collegians. Hawkins, whose biggest influences were Louis Armstrong records, skipped out on a 'Bama State Collegians band trip to New Jersey so he could play some gigs in New York. At one of these early shows, Armstrong surprised him backstage at the Apollo Theater. From then on, whenever Hawkins came to New York, Armstrong would also take the stage at the Savoy Ballroom, where Hawkins' dance band attracted a loyal following. Hawkins had three major hits (”Tuxedo Junction,” “After Hours” and “Tippin' In”) and was able to keep the big band together all the way until 1953. Hawkins' band was so popular that he was able to retain a permanent roster of players, most of whom were from Birmingham. The style was “down-home” and blues-inspired, but it could still swing and lay down a great dance beat. Two of his chief arrangers were pianist Avery “After Hours” Parrish and trumpeter Sammy Lowe. (See Sammy Lowe's biography, also on this website.) Baritone saxophone soloist Haywood Henry, who stayed with Hawkins until the band broke up in 1953, anchored the music securely in a solid harmony. During the band's heyday, the 1930s and 40s, Hawkins featured vocalists Ida James, Delores Brown and Della Reese. ROCKIN ROLLERS JUBILEE (1938) was ahead of its time, but TUXEDO JUNCTION (1939) became the anthem of American GIs in Europe during the early years of WWII. In 1978, Erskine Hawkins became one of the first five artists inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. He died in 1993 in Willingboro, New Jersey. Hawkins was an exact contemporary of another Birmingham jazz great, Sun Ra. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.