Song Singular first of two new Alexander Hawkins albums 

Improv pianist Alex Hawkins is to release two new albums for Babel records, the first a solo album called Song Singular on 29 July followed by the latest outing by his Ensemble in early-November. So far untitled, the latter of the pair will be the third album by the Ensemble. Hawkins is no stranger to the London-based label, and last year Hawkins, who is 32, released All There, Ever Out after the Ensemble had first debuted on Trevor Taylor’s Essex-based FMR label. Increasingly a presence on the jazz and improvising scene in various guises earlier in 2013 Hawkins appeared on Being Human Stephen Davis’ quartet album reviewed here: http://www.marlbank.net/album-of-the-week/465-album-of-the-week-being-human. While generally seen as a free improv pianist and composer, influenced by such guiding lights as Sun Ra, Ellington and Monk as well as modern classical composition framed by the innovations of free-jazz, Hawkins has made a name for himself separately within the musical panorama of Afrojazz as a member of Mulatu Astatke’s band (see http://www.marlbank.net/news/706-addis-and-beyond). Hawkins also appears as a member of the Dominic Lash quartet whose debut for Babel is expected in October. Babel has also indicated plans to release the debut of Brass Mask in late-September, a new horns and percussion-only octet led by saxophonist Tom Challenger and whose members also include trumpeters Alex Bonney and Rory Simmons and the Cross brothers, Nathaniel and Theon. Also expect a new album in mid-November by the duo of Scottish experimental saxophonist Raymond Macdonald and the great American free improvising pianist Marilyn Crispell whose new duo album with Gary Peacock is reviewed here http://www.marlbank.net/news/693-the-mystery-of-experience.
Stephen Graham