Had it not been for a succession of albums taped for Prestige and Riverside, it's possible that Coleman Hawkins might have quietly slipped into obscurity. With guitarist Kenny Burrell on hand, these Prestige originals pair a 1958 date (Soul) with one taped three years later (The Hawk Relaxes). So what is there not to enjoy when on it comes to Hawkins leisurely working his way through a selection of well chosen standards (‘I'll Never Be The Same’, ‘Under A Blanket Of Blue’, ‘Speak Low’, etc) on The Hawk Relaxes? However, it wasn't quite like that on 1958’s Soul project. While you can't fault the Ray Bryant-led rhythm section assembled on that occasion, there's this nagging suspicion that it was conceived as a quasi-band wagon jumpin’ exercise, with a couple of Burrell's gospel-tinged ‘Sunday Morning’ and ‘Groovin’’ thrown in to justify the album's title and thus make The Great Man relevant to what was happening in some quarters. Ironically, it's only on ‘Until The Real Thing Comes Along’ that he's back in his true comfort zone and focused. It's believed that the forever young Hawkins died in 1969, age 68, because he couldn't contend with the idea of growing old. For someone so unique as Coleman Hawkins who, in his remarkable career, had seen it all, done it all and had a trunk full of t-shirts to prove it, perhaps its’ not such a far-fetched notion.