Some people say there was no jazz tenor before me. All I know is I just had a way of playing and I didn't think in terms of any other instrument but the tenor.

In the late 20's Hawkins also participated in some of the earliest interracial recording sessions with the Mound City Blue Blowers. In late 1934 Hawkins accepted an invitation to play with Jack Hylton's band in London and toured Europe as a soloist until 1939 memorably working with Django Reinhardt and Benny Carter in Paris in 1937. In the 1960s Hawkins began to drink heavily and his recording output began to wane.

As Joachim E. While Hawkins is most strongly associated with the swing music and big band era he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s. Coleman Randolph Hawkins nicknamed Hawk and sometimes "Bean" (November 21 1904 – May 19 1969) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.