A quarter-century of Hawkins is like a whole lifetime for most other people, indeed it's tantamount to the whole history of jazz up to the consolidation of bebop. My highly selective listing of a few personnel standouts above belies the fact that there are hundreds of sidemen from very different eras here, who were all touched by Hawkins and in most cases were elevated by his example. Starting on a track with blues diva Mamie Smith, his first touring gig at age 18, he was still largely demonstrating why the saxophone was previously relegated to circus and marching bands. By the end of the period covered, he had established himself – twice – as the source of almost every style of jazz tenor, including Lester Young (I'd say), and from lush ballads such as ‘One Hour’ (1929), or ‘Body And Soul’ (1939), to the funky R&B of ‘Feedin’ The Bean’ (1941), to the totally unaccompanied (‘Hawk's Variations’, 1945). Numerous tracks from 1943-47 also illustrate how, without abandoning his identity, he inspired and facilitated the work of younger beboppers.

In just eight CDs you don't get the ‘complete’ Hawkins and, from the early period, only his significant solo contributions are included but, even as early as Henderson's ‘St. Louis Shuffle’ (1927), all three versions are here. Despite the great age of the source material, there are still 15 takes that are previously unissued and, despite variable sound, it's all listenable and worthy of study. The largest single gap concerns Hawk's pioneering stint in Europe (much of it covered on public-domain reissues) so that, between March 1934 to September 1939, his stylistic progression is missing. But there's so much to take on board - not only for saxophonists – that the mind boggles. For one dramatic instance, it's been pointed out by Lewis Porter that the second half of ‘Hawk's Variations’ is an improvisation on ‘Round Midnight’. In 1945, already.