1. Erskine Ramsay Hawkins was an American trumpeter and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel".
12 Facts About Erskine Hawkins
1. 2.
Erskine Hawkins is best remembered for composing the jazz standard "Tuxedo Junction" with saxophonist and arranger Bill Johnson.
3.
Erskine Hawkins was named by his parents after Alabama industrialist Erskine Ramsay who was rewarding parents with savings accounts for them for doing so.
4.
Erskine Hawkins attended Councill Elementary School and Industrial High School in Birmingham, Alabama.
5.
Erskine Hawkins engaged in "battles of the bands" with such bandleaders as Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, and Lionel Hampton.
6.
Erskine Hawkins remained with them until 1950 when he switched over to Coral Records.
7.
Erskine Hawkins was trumpeter and band leader in the lobby bar and show nightclub at The Concord Resort Hotel in Kiamesha Lake, New York from 1967 to 1993 with his last performing group Joe Vitale, Dudly Watson, Sonny Rossi, and George Leary.
8.
Erskine Hawkins died at his home in Willingboro Township, New Jersey, in November 1993, at the age of 79.
9.
Erskine Hawkins is buried at Elmwood Cemetery and Mausoleum, alongside his sister, in Birmingham, Alabama.
10.
Flo Erskine Hawkins, who appeared in the 1946 film That Man of Mine, was his wife.
11.
In 1978, Erskine Hawkins became one of the first five artists inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
12.
Erskine Hawkins was a contemporary of another Birmingham jazz musician, Sun Ra.