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Neil Charles
Alexander Hawkins Trio With Neil Charles And Stephen Davis: Carnival Celestial
by Ian Patterson
The laws of probability dictate that if three musicians spend enough time together a trio recording will eventually arise. Pianist Alexander Hawkins, bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis have clocked up many a road mile since forming in 2012. They have also recorded together in various settings, notably on the Alexander Hawkins/Elaine Mitchener album UpRoot (Intakt, 2017), with Anthony Braxton on Quartet (Standards) 2020 (New Braxton House, 2021) and on Alexander Hawkins/Mirror Cannon's Break a Vase (Intakt, 2022), which ...
read moreThe Flame: Towards The Flame Vol 1
by Mike Jurkovic
Three of Europe's most acclimated and proven improvisers--pianist Robert Mitchell (Steve Coleman, Greg Osby), bassist Neil Charles, and drummer/percussionist Mark Sanders (Jah Wobble, Rachel Musson)--band together as The Flame for the first time and emerge from pandemic isolation, and the forever wars and broken civics that accompanied it, with a hypnotic performance captured absolutely live on Towrads the Flame. Recorded at London's Cafe Otto in February of 2022, The Flame comes to life like most screams do: with ...
read moreAlexander Hawkins / Mirror Canon: Break A Vase
by Mark Corroto
Pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins sequences the ten tracks of Break A Vase in a seemingly counterintuitive manner. The title track, which is taken from West Indian poet Derek Walcott's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, is not heard until track six; it is a solo piano performance which emulates Walcott's words, Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole." Hawkins' solo performance on grand ...
read moreAlexander Hawkins: Togetherness Music (For Sixteen Musicians)
by Giuseppe Segala
Con questo lavoro, Alexander Hawkins aggiunge una tessera significativa al proprio originale percorso artistico, qui in particolare nella dialettica tra improvvisazione e musica scritta, dimostrando una maturazione consapevole e in costante sviluppo. Attento, curioso, audace, guidato da un sicuro istinto e da lucidità progettuale, il pianista di Oxford rappresenta la punta di diamante della propria generazione, quella sulla soglia dei quarant'anni. Il suo itinerario e la sua personalità sono in grado di confrontarsi e interagire efficacemente con i grandi protagonisti ...
read moreAlexander Hawkins Feat. Evan Parker + Riot Ensemble: Togetherness Music (For Sixteen Musicians)
by Mark Corroto
It is obvious from the outset that this is a significant recording. Evan Parker launches into his trademark soprano saxophone circular breathing, setting the stage for things to come. An exemplar of all things free improvisation, his virtuosity never fails to amaze. Although Parker is the marquee soloist here, the composer and organizer of this session, Alexander Hawkins, created the six movements of this suite to pioneer an intersection between free improvisation and contemporary chamber music. Certainly not an easy ...
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