Biography

Alexander Hawkins is a composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader who is ‘unlike anything else in modern creative music’. Regarded as one of his generation's most innovative thinkers, his own unique soundworld is shaped by a profound fascination with composition and structure, alongside a love of chance and open forms.

His writing has been said to represent ‘a fundamental reassertion of composition within improvised music’, and his voice one of the ‘most vividly distinctive...in modern jazz’. As a pianist, he has been described as ‘remarkable...possessing staggering technical ability and a fecund imagination.’

Concerning his organ playing, critic Brian Morton recently commented that ‘[t]he most interesting Hammond player of the last decade and more, [Hawkins] has already extended what can be done on the instrument.’

He is a frequent solo performer, and also appears in groupings ranging from duo (with the likes of Nicole Mitchell, Sofia Jernberg, Tomeka Reid, Angelika Niescier, Evan Parker, John Surman, Han Bennink, and Hamid Drake), through to large ensembles. His co-led quartet with the vocalist Elaine Mitchener 'probably [sets] a new standard for improvised music with song'; whilst Togetherness Music, released by Intakt Records in January 2021, has been called '[a] masterpiece that can stand next to the best works of Mitchell, Braxton or Parker'. His Ensemble music, at the core of which often sits his long-standing trio, was said by The Guardian newspaper to sound 'like all the future jazz you might imagine without ever being able to conceive of the details.'

Hawkins can be heard live and on record with vast array of contemporary leaders of all generations, including the likes of Anthony Braxton, Joe McPhee, Wadada Leo Smith, Marshall Allen, Michael Formanek, Rob Mazurek, Chad Taylor, Taylor Ho Bynum, Harris Eisenstadt, Nicole Mitchell, Matana Roberts, Esperanza Spalding, Jonny Greenwood, and Shabaka Hutchings. For over a decade, he has also been noted for his performances in the bands of legendary South African drummer, Louis Moholo-Moholo, and Ethio-jazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke.

He has been widely commissioned, by the likes of the BBC, festivals such as the London and Berlin Jazz Festivals, venues such as the Pierre Boulez Saal, and contemporary music groups such as the Riot Ensemble. He was named 'Instrumentalist of the Year' in the 2016 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. In 2018, he was elected a fellow of the Civitella Ranieri.

Concert appearances take him to major club, concert and festival stages worldwide.