Alexander Hawkins - Biography

Alexander Hawkins is a composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader who is ‘unlike anything else in modern creative music’ (Ni Kantu) and whose recent work has reached a ‘dazzling new apex’ (Downbeat). Self-taught, he works in a vast array of creative contexts. His own highly distinctive soundworld is forged through the search to reconcile both his love of free improvisation and profound fascination with composition and structure.

In 2012, was chosen as a member of the first edition of the London Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Soundhub’ scheme for young composers. He also received a major BBC commission in late 2012 for a fifty minute composition: One Tree Found was first performed in February 2013, and first broadcast in March 2013. His next commissioned work, for improvising piano trio, will be performed in November, as part of the 21st London Jazz Festival. His writing for his own regular groups has been said to represent ‘a fundamental reassertion of composition within improvised music’ (Point of Departure).

Hawkins main vehicles as leader or co-leader are his Ensemble, The Convergence Quartet, and Decoy. One review of the Ensemble’s debut record, No Now Is So (FMR Records), wrote of ‘such absolute joy and strength…an incredible record’ (Clifford Allen, Bagatellen). The album featured heavily in top ten albums of 2009 lists on both sides of the Atlantic. The group’s second album, all there, ever out, has been said to mark them out as one of the ‘most vividly distinctive [groups] in modern jazz’ (The Jazzmann). Step Wide, Step Deep, to be released in late 2013, represents the latest chapter in the group’s development.

The Convergence Quartet features American Taylor Ho Bynum, Canadian Harris Eisenstadt, and Dominic Lash from the UK. Their three albums – Live in Oxford (FMR Records, 2007), Song/Dance (Clean Feed, 2010), and Slow and Steady (NoBusiness, 2013) – have all been enthusiastically reviewed throughout the UK, Europe, and North America, evincing ‘a sustained sense of open-mouthed surprise’ (BBC Music).

Decoy – a trio in which Hawkins plays Hammond Organ – ‘redefine the words ‘shock and awe’’ (Jazzwise). The Guardian’s John Fordham highlighted potential for a ‘cult following’; while critic Brian Morton recently commented that ‘[t]he most interesting Hammond player of the last decade and more, [Hawkins] has already extended what can be done on the instrument.’

An in-demand sideman, Hawkins continues to be heard with vast array of contemporary leaders, such as Evan Parker, Joe McPhee, Marshall Allen, Mulatu Astatke. He has also been noted in recent years for his performances in the bands of legendary South African drummer, Louis Moholo-Moholo. A duo album, ‘Keep Your Heart Straight’, was released on the Ogun label in October 2012, and has been called ‘a classic in waiting’ (John Eyles).

Concert appearances have taken him to club, concert and festival stages worldwide. His music has been broadcast extensively on BBC Radio, as well as in Europe and beyond. National Public Radio in the United States featured him in a 2010 ‘5 Young British Jazz Artists to Watch’ piece, whilst he also appeared on France Musique as one of five artists representing ‘la nouvelle vague du jazz anglais.’ He also appears regularly both as a specialist interviewer and interviewee for the BBC.