ALEXANDER HAWKINS QUINTET

Neil Charles – double bass
Otto Fischer – electric guitar
Alexander Hawkins – piano, compositions
Shabaka Hutchings – clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone
Tom Skinner – drums

Alexander Hawkins photo by Emile Holba

Alexander Hawkins (‘internationally recognized as one of the more striking voices in improvised music to emerge from the UK in recent years’, Point of Departure) brings a new group, with a new book of compositions, to Café Oto for its first performance. Having performed with the likes of Louis Moholo-Moholo, Evan Parker, Joe McPhee, Sonny Simmons, his own distinctive soundworld as a composer is forged through the search to reconcile both his love of free improvisation and profound fascination with composition and structure.

Tatum Totem III by Alexander Hawkins

Unique guitarist Otto Fischer, also known as a highly individual songwriter, has also performed with the likes of Brandon Ross, and was dubbed ‘a sort of digitized electric griot’ in a review of a recent performance at New York’s ‘Stone’.

BBC New Generation Artist Shabaka Hutchings is one of the most eclectic and musically adventurous instrumentalists on the London jazz scene, and has already been featured with a vast range of artists, including Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Courtney Pine, Polar Bear, and many others.

Bassist Neil Charles and drummer Tom Skinner are new to Hawkins’ ensembles, though the three have performed throughout Europe as rhythm section for the seminal figure of Ethiopian jazz, Mulatu Astatke. Charles is one of the most in-demand musicians on the scene, with a huge array of credits, including the groups of Jack DeJohnette, Byron Wallen, Jose James, Jerry Dammers, Courtney Pine, and Terence Blanchard.

Similarly respected and sought-after, Skinner has been a mainstay of the scene since his first professional jobs at age 13. In this time, he has featured in countless high profile groups, including the Jazz Warriors, the Denys Baptiste Quartet, Byron Wallen’s Indigo, Jade Fox, and most recently, groups such as Shabaka and the Sons of Kemet, and The Owiny Sigoma Band.

‘jazz taken to the edge and then pushed over, because there really was nowhere else to go’ Streams of Expression



JOHN EDWARDS (solo)

John Edwards is a true virtuoso whose staggering range of techniques and boundless musical imagination have redefined the possibility of the double bass and dramatically expanded its role, whether playing solo or with others. Perpetually in demand, he has played with Evan Parker, Sunny Murray, Derek Bailey, John Wall, Joe McPhee, Lol Coxhill, and many others.

DOMINIC LASH

Dominic Lash replaces John Edwards tonight. Dom has performed with Tony Conrad and Evan Parker; other currently active ensembles include a duo with Alex Ward, a trio with John Butcher and John Russell and The Convergence Quartet (with Taylor Ho Bynum, Harris Eisenstadt and Alexander Hawkins). He also leads The Set Ensemble (an experimental music group mainly devoted to the work of composers from the Wandelweiser collective). Recent CD publications include work on the Another Timbre, Cathnor, Clean Feed and Psi labels. He was resident in New York for much of 2011, where he performed with musicians including Michael Pisaro, Fay Victor and Nate Wooley.