Alexander Hawkins

I do have some copies in fact, so I can hook you up! Will send a PM.

I'm really excited to announce the arrival of my new album - my first effort in the piano trio format. The digital release is available from today, at this link: http://alexanderhawkinsmusic.bandcamp.com/releases- as well, shortly, as via the other usual digital platforms. (The digital release should also come with a download of the liner notes, which are by Richard Williams.) The physical copies are also here. The UK release date for this is April 13 (anyone over here then: please do join us at Cafe Oto that night for the launch gig!). Obviously I'd be especially delighted for people to pick up the physical thing, but completely understand any format preferences either way! It's also a first venture into self-release for me, so something of an experiment in that respect - so would really appreciate any feedback. I've held off doing a piano trio for a while...I guess it's a format with a lot of baggage...but I'm proud of what we've done with it, and hopefully it sounds more like itself than anything else...but at any rate: I hope people may be interested to check it out!

I guess I'll be self-indulgent and create a separate topic, but I just thought I'd mention that my first piano trio recording is now available digitally (I have physical copies too, though the official release date for that in the UK is 13th April)...if you're curious, please do check it out here: http://alexanderhawkinsmusic.bandcamp.com/releases It's a first foray for me into self-release, which I've been interested in for a while...so I'd be really delighted if people were interested in the physical thing. That said, hopefully the digital sounds great too, and it should come with a download of liner notes etc. (by the brilliant Richard Williams)...

Thanks for the kind words about the Moholo track! I have to chip in and agree wholeheartedly that THE version of Amexesha Osizi is the one on 'Spirits Rejoice'...that may be may favourite Kenny solo anywhere, and goodness knows he recorded his share of special ones! Don't want to derail, but should anyone without the record want to check it out, I just noticed it's over on Youtube, here...

Oops yes, clumsily worded by me!

Michael Moore also plays bass clarinet, on the subject of Dutch players...

Shabaka Hutchings here in the UK plays bass clarinet brilliantly - he's got the opening solo on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYnZLgLjS0Q

thanks it's apparently from this Lacy doc which I enjoyed listening to/watching as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWOEUlmoHBQ np What is the song Lacy plays on the piano and sings at the end of this documentary? Sounds like the Spirit Of Monk got into him. That's a tune called 'Agenda'... I only know this because I recorded it recently with the fantastic Italian saxophonist (who I believe may actually have helped produce that Lacy film you link!) Roberto Ottaviano...Roberto made a double CD homage to Lacy, which Lacy fans (and others) may well want to check out! There's a little taster here.

Really glad you enjoyed it! I felt a little like I'd died and gone to heaven, sitting in that proximity to the baritone sound...hearing him play 'When Fortune Smiles' like that...wow...

Wish i could make it to Southampton to see you play with him. It's got be great, hasn't it? Are the Beeb recording it do you know? Sorry not to catch you! I don't think it's being recorded... ...but tell you what - I'm just on the computer for 10 minutes having a break from practising some of the tunes...what a writer too...can't wait!

I really love this early stuff too - out on Cuneiform. Also, for a bit of a rarity...

I've no doubt that Evan Parker could reflect very interestingly on the Marsh/Coltrane question...

I think it was Braxton quintet (w/Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorsen, Chris Dahlgren, and Satoshi Takeishi), playing before Cecil/Oxley/Dixon...that was a mind-blowing show!

PM sent!

I think possibly first gig with his own band in the UK in 10 years...there was the amazing quartet show at the RFH with Cecil Taylor/William Parker/Tony Oxley in 2007 (I think it was)...either way: absolutely brilliant about Bristol!

Really looking forward to this...and just to reiterate Bev's point re younger musicians: *absolutely* so. A great guy.

I was there too Bev! Sorry we didn't meet up. A terrific concert and as I was sitting in the back row but one I only identified around 2/3 of the musicians. I think I saw Chris Biscoe and definitely saw Julian Arguelles and Mark Lockheart in the horn section and also Chris Batchelor on trupet. Also thought I might have glimpsed Mark Charig but only as they all left the stage! I think Clevaland Watkiss was one of the four vocalists in the back row. Really great concert and probably my gig of the year. Yes Roger, I wondered whether that was Mark Charig, after all there aren't too many horn players around. Also took it to be Watkiss but neither Bev or I could ID the second male vocalist. I checked for a line up on the sbc site but no luck. Bev says it all really about the gig. I was particularly moved by the Wheeler arrangement of Pukwana's 'Be my dear' - the first Kenny I'd heard live since his death and the instantly recognisable style really brought home what we've lost but also what we've got to keep. Ray Warleigh's solo (he's on one of those LPs Bev) on this tune was a highlight too. On a lighter note, Julie Tippetts and Maggie Nichols' enthusiasm and lighthearted messing about on the back row brought to mind the naughty kids at the back of a school class. Their vocal contributions were peerless. That Courtney Pine was in the audience did make me woner how ideal he'd've been on the stage. Always enjoy seeing the Evan P ina horn section of a big band as it always seems somewhat incongruous. Great gig all round that really brought home the enduring legacy of those visitors from SA 50 years ago Some cross posting going on here. I think the more exuberant of the duelling bone players was Alan Tomlinson. That's a good call on Deppa - he was mentioned on the website and he wasn't any of the others so by amazing powers of deduction.... Yes, what a beautiful gig...was so happy to have caught it. To confirm, the male vocalists were indeed Cleveland, and David Serame (who, incidentally, I'd never met before, and is an extremely nice guy). No Claude Deppa; the lead trumpet was George Hogg (the others being Chris Batchelor, Henry Lowther, and Jim Dvorak). Indeed, Mark Charig on tenor horn. And the duelling trombones on 'Traumatic Experience' were Alan Tomlinson (who, if I remember right, did more of the plunger work), and Paul Taylor.

I played at WOMAD with Mulatu Astatke a few weeks back, and had the unexpected pleasure of catching a set by the newly reformed 'Les Ambassadeurs', Salif Keita and all...if they're anywhere near your part of the world, HIGHLY recommended!

Great Steve - enjoy!

I'd also add that - of course - 'freedom' is a precious thing for people who go into exile from regimes such as Apartheid SA. Louis (et al.) very much align with an aesthetic (similar to that of the AACM) of 'freedom to' instead of 'freedom from'...so playing tunes/vamps/grooves is no more or less free than the completely open forms, or any other. What is important is inhabiting the 'moment', and genuinely improvising...a type of empirical freedom, more than talking about what music can/can't/should/shouldn't be. I think this idea of the moment is related to the thrilling raggedness of a lot of the music...I mean - listen to their session work, and it's clear these guys can all nail 'orthodox' precision, but this takes you a little close to rules, and rehearsing out the spontaneity. (Cf Theme De Yoyo to show that the funkiest stuff comes just on the brink - whilst all the time it's clear that 'if they wanted' it could all be a lot more 'precise'). I've definitely been in rehearsals with Louis where we've junked a tune because it was all a little clean/polished, and lacking the loose-limbed thing... And temperamentally, count me in: one of the main things I feel I've learnt from Louis is the value of risking chaos in order to create conditions where the magic might happen, in preference to playing safe with a much higher percentage return of 'satisfactory' results. And that if you go into it with this attitude, you find that the chaotic stuff therefore has its own kick...

With a gun to my head, being made to choose between the two (but understand - it WOULD pretty much take a gun to the head) - I'd go with 'Very Urgent'...IMHO it has THE classic version of 'Marie My Dear'/'B My Dear' on it. Steve - I know buying budgets are what they are, but that box is running extremely, extremely low as far as I know...and I'm biased of course, but the music throughout is astonishing. If there's a heavier recording in this world than 'Blue Notes For Mongezi', then.....................

I don't know that particular SME, so really looking forward to it. Plus - with Johnny on bass - a COMPLETE no-brainer!!!

Steve - yeah, that's Jason! You're totally right about John Edwards. The sound is absolutely massive...and hook him up with Louis, and it's something else...whew... Louis and those bombs...once those drums are hit, they *stay* hit!!!

Thanks! Yeah, close indeed...lthough I have to say in fairness - (s)he was very discreet - I had no idea at all!

Not quite answering the question, but my two favourite improvising bassoonists are Mick Beck and Sara Schoenbeck - both incredible with all this extended technique stuff. Here's a clip of Mick with the great Phil Minton: ...he's a great guy, and they made a nice film about him recently: Sara is on a tonne of great stuff. She's amazing in the Braxton ensembles. There's also a really nice trio record with Taylor Ho Bynum and Joe Morris (here's a live clip of the group: ). She's also part of Wayne Horvitz's totally brilliant Gravitas Quartet...not to mention Harris Eisenstadt's incredible Golden State (with Nicole Mitchell and Mark Dresser): Oh and I forgot to mention Katie Young!!!