“Sounds like all the future jazz you might imagine without ever being able to conceive of the details” (The Guardian)

Alexander Hawkins is a pianist, organist, composer and bandleader and the leading voice of his generation in contemporary experimental UK jazz. He 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, he featured on the official ballot for the 75th Annual Downbeat Reader’s Poll in the organ category (as he had in 2010). The journal El Intruso voted him #1 in the keyboard category, and #5 in the piano category, in its 2010 poll; he also placed #4 in the keyboard category in 2011, and at #2 in 2012. His albums have for several years regularly featured in critics’ ‘end of year’ lists.

Alongside his work as a bandleader, he regularly appears live and on record with many iconic figures of the music, including Louis Moholo-Moholo, Mulatu Astatke, and Joe McPhee. Other credits include Evan Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, Sonny Simmons, and Marshall Allen. He is also a collaborator in the Convergence Quartet with two important peers from the North American creative music scene – Taylor Ho Bynum and Harris Eisenstadt.

He is increasingly also known for his writing, and is regularly commissioned including by the London Jazz Festival, BBC Radio and Germany’s WDR. In 2015 Alexander is being commissioned by the Bimhuis Amsterdam for its 40th anniversary.

His trio features Hawkins alongside two musicians with whom he has built up a striking rapport in recent times: Neil Charles (double bass) and Jon Scott (drums).

Neil Charles is one of the most in-demand musicians on the scene, with a huge array of credits to his name, including the groups of Jack DeJohnette, Byron Wallen, Jose James, Jerry Dammers, Courtney Pine, and Terence Blanchard. As well as being known as a bass player with a huge sound and immaculate sense of time, he is equally renowned as a producer, and has worked with many major labels.

Similarly respected and sought-after, Jon Scott has been a mainstay of the UK scene. To date he has appeared on over 25 albums. Jon is the first call drummer for a large number of original groups, including 2011 MOBO “Best Jazz” award winners Kairos 4Tet, Dice Factory, and Rory Simmons’ “Monocled Man”. In addition he has performed with artists including Mulatu Astatke, Will Vinson, Julian Siegel, Julian Joseph, Byron Wallen, Nikki Iles, Mike Walker.

“What made this trio especially riveting was how the players methodically traversed all the different ways in which three musicians can relate to each other, from complete lock-step to total disparity...This tension between a very tight compositional frame and exuberant freedom is one thing that made this gig so absorbing..If Hawkins really is the future of jazz pianism, the future looks bright.”  (The Telegraph)