Alexander Hawkins

Alexander Hawkins

Alexander Hawkins is a British jazz pianist, organist, composer and bandleader from Oxford, United Kingdom. He is largely self-taught as an improviser and works across a wide range of creative settings, drawing on both free improvisation and composition. His music is shaped by an interest in combining open-ended playing with written structure, and his own groups are closely associated with that approach.

Composition and commissions

In 2012, Hawkins is selected for the first edition of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Soundhub scheme for young composers. He also receives a BBC commission for a fifty-minute work, One Tree Found, which is first performed and broadcast in 2013 and later performed and broadcast for WDR in Cologne in 2014. He is commissioned twice by the London Jazz Festival, once as a composer and once as an arranger, and also by the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2016.

Performance and recording work

Hawkins is an in-demand sideman and appears live and on record with a wide range of contemporary artists, including Evan Parker, John Surman, Joe McPhee, Mulatu Astatke, Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Marshall Allen, Rob Mazurek, Taylor Ho Bynum and Harris Eisenstadt. He is also noted for performances with the bands of South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo. His organ playing, especially on the Hammond, is also a recognised part of his work.

Style and reputation

His writing for his own ensembles is associated with the role of composition within improvised music, and his piano playing is described as technically assured and inventive. His work is rooted in free jazz and jazz, and he continues to perform in clubs, concert halls and festivals internationally.

Associated groups

Hawkins performs with or is associated with Taylor Ho Bynum Quintet, Alexander Hawkins / Neil Charles / Tomas Fujiwara, Alexander Hawkins Ensemble, Louis Moholo‐Moholo Quartet, Evan Parker Quartet, Alexander Hawkins Mirror Canon, Roberto Ottaviano Extended Love, Sant’Anna Arresi Quintet by Evan Parker, Decoy and Roberto Ottaviano QuarkTet.