Sunday 28 February 2016, 8pm
“sounds like all the future jazz you might imagine without ever being able to conceive of the details” – The Guardian
“emotions and melodies that’ll strike awe in the hearts of anyone dauntless enough to sit through this staggering album from beginning to end.” – The Quietus
Alexander Hawkins is a pianist, Hammond organist, and composer, described by recent reviews as a ‘young master’ and ‘one of the most unique voices in contemporary music’. His highly individual soundworld is forged through his love of free improvisation with a profound fascination with composition and structure; resulting, besides his leader projects, in his regular presence onstage and on recordings with established masters such as Louis Moholo-Moholo, Joe McPhee, John Surman, Evan Parker, and Mulatu Astatke, as well as peers from both sides of the Atlantic.
Alongside the leader’s piano, the Ensemble gathers together five of the UK’s most exciting and in-demand creative musicians, each of whom has synthesised a vast range of inspiration and influence, and whose collective credits include the likes of Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Terence Blanchard, and Sons of Kemet.
Alexander Hawkins / piano, compositions, arrangements
Dylan Bates / violin
Neil Charles / double bass
Otto Fischer / electric guitar
Shabaka Hutchings / bass clarinet
Tom Skinner / drums, percussion
Alexander Hawkins’ work ranges from his acclaimed solo performances (‘intensely intricate…powerful, technically brilliant and melodically inventive’) through to works on a much larger canvas, such as his Togetherness Music ('[a] masterpiece that can stand next to the best works of Mitchell, Braxton or Parker’). He collaborates regularly with all generations of creative musicians, including the likes of Anthony Braxton, Marshall Allen, Evan Parker, John Surman, Joe McPhee, Hamid Drake, Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Sofia Jernberg, Shabaka Hutchings, and many others. Further creative associations, with two very different icons of African music, Louis Moholo-Moholo and Mulatu Astatke, stretch back for well over a decade. He has been widely commissioned as a composer, including by the likes of the BBC, Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, and numerous festivals. His performance schedule takes him to club, concert hall, and festival stages worldwide.
"Sounds like all the future jazz you might imagine without ever being able to conceive of the details" – The Guardian
