AMG Review of Body & Soul [RCA]

Scott Yanow
All Music Guide

Ignoring past reissues (including a definitive two-CD set from 1995 that had 40 recordings), RCA came out with this 19-selection single CD in 1996; all of the performances were in the previous reissue. If found at a budget price, this CD can act as a fine introduction to the great tenor Coleman Hawkins. Among its high points are two very different versions of "Body and Soul" and classic renditions of "When Day Is Done," "The Sheik of Araby," and the modernistic "Half Step Down, Please," an appealing "I Love Paris," and a few numbers with strings and woodwinds. The music dates from 1939-1940, 1946-1947, and 1956 and is generally beyond criticism.