Alexander Hawkins

I think the recent duo on Intakt with Louis Moholo, Sibanye (We Are One), is absolutely awesome. Wonderful playing by both IMHO. I would really recommend it.

First - a big thank you to everyone who came out to support The Convergence Quartet. Second, just upping this for a final plug for Tuesday's gig at the Vortex, where somehow I find myself on stage with three masters: depping for Steve Beresford, I'm temporarily the fourth fox in the Foxes Fox quartet: Evan Parker, John Edwards, and Louis Moholo-Moholo. Please come down if you're free!

Wow - had no idea the ICP was around...any idea of any other tour dates in the UK? edit: oops, apparently not, to answer my own question!

p.s. for the curious, and do check out our broadcast on Radio 3!

Yeah, Jason is extraordinary. He does do a lot of production, as you say...but look out for a record coming soon from the Louis Moholo Unit - Jason, Francine Luce, Ntshuks Bonga, Orphy Robinson, Pule Pheto, John Edwards, and Louis...haven't heard it, but live the band is extraordinary! He also works with Byron Wallen in Jack DeJohnette's group... I agree though - I think he's an awesome player.

Those reed players I think were Shabaka Hutchins and Nathaniel Facey. Facey plays with Empirical, and also Courtney Pine's Afropeans band. Don't know a great deal about his playing, I'm afraid! Shabaka is London-based...he's also with Afropeans, and has his own trio called Zed-U - I believe a Babel album is in the pipeline...he's a nice player...also starting to do some freer stuff as well, at which he's equally adept!

Thanks for the review Bev - sorry not to get to meet you at the Everyman, but thanks a lot for coming along. Thanks for picking up the CD too - I hope you enjoy it! I thought Dunmall was fantastic on the pipes too - really great! We weren't there for long, but my favourite moment of the festival was an absolutely awe-inspiring set from Ernst Reijseger on Friday night...great to meet him too - a great guy...but an astounding set. Interesting to read about the DeJohnette concert - I've heard mixed (all very positive in their own way, however!) things. Would have been keen to check out the Don Byron - didn't he have Pheeroan AkLaff on drums? Never seen him, but would have loved to!

Yeah, it seems to be a remarkable story! I have a friend who was part of the making of the film - really interesting to talk to about Martino. p.s. hope to see people at the Cheltenham shows tonight! We're at the BBC show at the Everyman late (BTW - a solo set from Dunmall on bagpipes has just been added to the bill!), and in a triple bill with Alex Ward/Chris Cundy and Ernst Reijseger earlier in the evening at the University's Pitville Campus.

I think Nostalgia 77 is the name of the band led by the bassist, Rian Vosloo...the Tippetts are guests on this session. I'd be interested to hear this...Mark Hanslip is great, and a very nice guy to boot. p.s. I've always wondered about the Tippett(s) issue. I have no idea why it is!

Thank you SO much - I really appreciate the kind words - it means a lot! Hey Clifford - glad it got there - hope you like it!

Bev - thank you so much - *really* appreciate the support! Do say hi if there's the chance!

Final publicity 'up' from me...we hit the road tomorrow

Another one I'm not sure has been mentioned - I really enjoy 'Pictures in a Frame'. Actually, especially Roach's solo piano/voice feature on the last tune, 'Ode From Black Picture Show'.

I must get that one! He played his Frith/Bjork set when I caught him, and it was wonderful.

They did...Rothenberg went over my head but Angeli was astounding. A fourth Italian was due to play but he got lost at Dover and never made it! Yeah - Angeli is incredible! I had never heard of him or met him, but we shared a bill down in Oxford, and he was mindblowing. And an extremely nice guy to boot! He gave me a copy of his duo with Hamid Drake - great stuff. I've got a ticket for this show. Looking forward to it ! Great! I hope it's a good'un...an exciting line-up!

Hope no-one minds me 'upping' this...less than a week to go until the first gigs of the tour... Please come out and support live music if you can make it! And an addition to the above information: We also play the live BBC show from the Everyman Theatre late on Friday 1 May. Tickets are free, but do need to be reserved in advance. If you can't make it, the show is broadcast late night on May 4! Also on the bill for the BBC show - the Will Vinson Quartet, featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel; and 'Get the Blessing'.

Money Jungle was my immediate thought, but then I read through the thread an agreed with almost everything else that was said, so...I dunno!

Both discs sound excellent if very different. I've played "No now is so" all the way thru but I'm still listening to "Convergence". The interesting line up of instruments on "No..." doesn't disappoint. Both benefit from being played loud. The first time I heard Orphy play steel pan, he was actually playing standards...but interesting things, including 'Little B's Poem', 'Gazzelloni' etc...this was what made me think what an amazing tone colour could be outside the traditional calypso-type setting! Pretty scary in many ways seeing him tear through a tune like the Dolphy actually on just the single pan! There's also a really nice pan player actually with Courtney Pine's 'Afropeans' band at the moment...name escapes me...Samuel Dubois perhaps?

Just gone in the post to Florida and Scotland respectively. Thank you again!

Really kind - hope you enjoy it

I certainly can - thank you for the interest!

Thanks for the kind comments... Al - I'm liking that for the next record...but it might mean I need to find a label to put the third one on vinyl, if only so we can fit the title on the front

This totally depends. Yes, as you say, sometimes the rehearsal is understood as covered by part of the session fee. But I've been paid for plenty of rehearsals. I don't know how it was 'in the day', but to say that no-one pays is untrue, certainly nowadays. Perhaps depends on how scrupulous the producer is? Dunno. BTW - I don't buy the 'writing/music - dancing/architecture' thing, at least insofar as it's meant as something of a dig against writing about music. It appeals in a tiny way to the small part of me that appreciates the occasional 'bon mot' - but otherwise, please! Several things: 1) let's not think too hard about things - I for one simply enjoy reading about music; 2) sure, it's difficult to capture many and various things in writing about music (as it is to capture various ideas about other things in music), but this isn't to say that writing e.g. can't send you to check out/appreciate music in more depth; 3) you can still appreciate the writing qua writing in any case - examples where this is the case for me personally - Larry Kart, John Szwed. And 4) - think about it from a practical point of view as a producer. From my point of view as a musician, certainly I need writers. Reviews etc. are what help people like us work, and it's conceited to think otherwise. No-one is more important than anyone else in the musical enterprise, really - most of us are all in the game of enjoying and trying to make it happen. Anyhow, this is sort of off-topic...moving back on to the subject in hand...I have to hang my head slightly and say that I haven't read Tom Perchard's book. I've had the pleasure of meeting Tom on gigs, and don't doubt however that it's an excellent and perceptive book - he knows what he's talking about, and then some - seriously. And I can honestly say that I have heard some really heavy musicians lavish praise on the book. Here is a link to Tom's site.

I'm not sure about the drummer - not heard of him - but Baars and bassist Wilbert De Joode are seriously heavyweight - fantastic. And last time I heard Vandermark, he was absolutely wonderful...I think he sounds really good with Europeans...I would definitely check out the show!

Thank you - it's a privilege to get to play with musicians like these!