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Alexander 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 ...
Continue ReadingRoberto Ottaviano Extended Love & Eternal Love: Resonance & Rapsodies
by Neri Pollastri
Roberto Ottaviano torna a riunire la formazione con la quale nel 2018 aveva realizzato l'eccellente Eternal Love, ne sviluppa ancora le potenzialità e, non pago, compie un ulteriore passo in avanti, allargando la formazione da quintetto a ottetto --di fatto un doppio quartetto-- trasformandola in Extended Love. Con risultati, va detto subito, stupefacenti. Il CD in quintetto è il secondo, Rapsodies, e la formazione è la medesima del disco di due anni orsono, tranne la presenza al pianoforte ...
Continue ReadingAlexander Hawkins, Tomeka Reid: Shards and Constellations
by Neri Pollastri
Il fulminante incontro tra una coppia di improvvisatori e ricercatori tra i più in vista a livello internazionale, ben noti anche da noi per le collaborazioni con musicisti italiani, quali sono il pianista inglese Alexander Hawkins e la violoncellista statunitense Tomeka Reid, dà vita a cinquanta minuti di una musica perlopiù inquieta, imprevedibilmente serpeggiante e interamente improvvisata, con l'esclusione dei due brani (su dieci) non originali—"Peace on You," di Muhal Richard Abrams, e “Albert Ayler (His Life Was Too Short)," ...
Continue ReadingKarl Evangelista: Apura!
by John Sharpe
One sure-fire way for up-and-coming musicians to get attention is to convene an all star combo. Though Bay Area-based Filipino-American guitarist (and sometime AAJ scribe) Karl Evangelista follows that route on his fourth album Apura! he makes surprising but astute choices of bandmates by enlisting the services of legendary South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo and the British pair of veteran saxophonist Trevor Watts and rising star pianist Alexander Hawkins. As Evangelista explains in the liner notes, the music of early ...
Continue ReadingFive Blokes at the Vortex
by Maurice Hogue
This episode of One Man's Jazz features an entire full set of music recorded in March at the Vortex Club in London. Originally the gig was set for Louis Moholo's Four Blokes , but when the veteran drummer fell ill at home in South Africa, the band asked the fine English drummer Mark Sanders to fill in. Thus Five Blokes was born. Pianist Alexander Hawkins kindly contributed some thoughts about that night. The subsequent recording is part of a series ...
Continue ReadingAlexander Hawkins and Tomeka Reid: Shards and Constellations
by Troy Dostert
Although they have not recorded together previously, pianist Alexander Hawkins and cellist Tomeka Reid are both improvisers with omnivorous musical tastes and soaring ambition. Hawkins has fronted his own ensembles over the years—perhaps the most notable example being Step Wide, Step Deep (Babel, 2014)—but he's been active in freely-improvised contexts as well, working with everyone from Louis Moholo-Moholo to Evan Parker. And Reid has generated ample accolades both for her own quartet, most recently on Old New (Cuneiform, 2019), as ...
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