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About Alexander Hawkins

Album Review

Alexander Hawkins & Taylor Ho Bynum: A Near Permanent State Of Wonder

Read "A Near Permanent State Of Wonder" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
June 25, 2026

Nearly two decades after first crossing paths in the transatlantic Convergence Quartet, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and pianist Alexander Hawkins reunite on A Near Permanent State Of Wonder, a recording that finds their rapport undimmed and their curiosity intact. In the intervening period Hawkins has become one of the most in demand pianists in Europe, as collaborations with the likes of Anthony Braxton, Shabaka Hutchings, Evan Parker and Tomeka Reid testify. Bynum, likewise an alumnus of Braxton, as well as ...

Album Review

Alexander Hawkins: No Nation but Imagination

Read "No Nation but Imagination" reviewed by Kevin Poindexter

by Kevin Poindexter
June 12, 2026

Pianist and composer Alexander Hawkins has spent years at the forefront of the European jazz avant- garde scene, leading various mutations of the standard group format, from solo piano to large ensembles and everything in between. Experimenting with different dynamics, instruments, and musicians, and adapting them to fulfill the needs of the music has been his calling card for nearly two decades now. On No Nation But Imagination, Hawkins once again mixes things up, putting together a unique lineup featuring ...

Album Review

Michael Formanek: New Digs

Read "New Digs" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 6, 2026

Michael Formanek has never been content to anchor a bandstand and call it a career. Over decades of work--from sideman stints with Stan Getz and Joe Henderson to the long-running Thumbscrew trio with Mary Halvorson and Tomas Fujiwara--he has operated as a composer and architect, building rooms rather than merely inhabiting them. New Digs recorded over two days in Torres Vedras, Portugal, stands as an ambitious project via this seven-piece trans-Atlantic ensemble shaped by a precise sonic design.

Radio & Podcasts

International Jazz Day Special

by Maurice Hogue
May 4, 2026

This edition of One Man's Jazz landed on April 30th, the date on which International Jazz Day is celebrated. The 2026 festivities are the 15th such event, but this show has been pumping the tires of international artists for many more years than that. Nevertheless, any excuse for a special show, yes? You'll hear music from many different places that includes several new releases. Pianists Alexander Hawkins (UK), Felix Hauptmann (DE) & Simon Nabatov (RU/DE), a pair of flautists in ...

Album Review

Olie Brice: All It Was

Read "All It Was" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
September 29, 2025

Bassist Olie Brice convenes an all-star quartet on All It Was, bringing together pianist Alexander Hawkins, saxophonist Rachel Musson, and drummer Will Glaser. The ensemble's chemistry yields music that is both architecturally sound and fiercely spontaneous, balancing Brice's penchant for crafted frameworks with his immersion in the free-improvised tradition. Brice has long navigated the space between structure and freedom--whether in chart-driven ensembles like Loz Speyer's Inner Space and Nick Malcolm's Out Front, or in open trios with Musson, ...

Album Review

Olie Brice Quartet: All It Was

Read "All It Was" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 11, 2025

Bassist Olie Brice wears the title of Mr. Inside/Mr. Outside with remarkable ease. Equally adept in free improvisation and structured composition, Brice moves fluidly between extremes. His work with improvisers such as Tobias Delius and Mark Sanders on Somersaults (Two Rivers, 2015), or with Paul Dunmall on The Laughing Stone (Confront, 2023), exemplifie his outside approach. Meanwhile, his release Fire Hills (West Hill, 2022), where he composed material for both trio and octet, showcases his talents on the more structured ...

Album Review

Alexander Hawkins: Song Unconditional

Read "Song Unconditional" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
August 3, 2025

Where on the first solo outing by British pianist Alexander Hawkins, Song Singular (Babel, 2014), his influences strode in plain sight, and the second, Iron Into Wind (Intakt, 2019), in its austerity, nodded toward Hawkins' classical schooling, Song Unconditional feels simultaneously more personal and more welcoming. It finds Hawkins not only consolidating the vocabulary of his earlier output but distilling it into something strikingly self- assured. Since that initial unaccompanied foray, Hawkins has become one of the most ...