bagatellen | Alexander Hawkins Ensemble

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Alexander Hawkins Ensemble - No Now is So

By clifford ⋅ July 6, 2009 ⋅

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Though only on his third recording and first as a leader (the other two – Convergence Quartet and Barkingside – are cooperative groups), it’s safe to say that English pianist Alexander Hawkins is coming into his own as a “young lion” of contemporary improvisation. His other projects feature a semi-typical horn-and-rhythm lineup, but they’re far from traditional in execution, juxtaposing meaty free playing with balletic poise. However, it’s hard not to cock one’s eye at the instrumentation of No Now is So. Hawkins is joined by regular collaborator Dominic Lash on bass, cellist Hannah Marshall, guitarist Otto Fischer, drummer Javier Carmona and steel-drummer Orphy Robinson. A unique instrument outside of calypso and some 1960s British jazz experiments, Robinson’s axe adds an entirely unexpected but beautifully-realized dimension to the proceedings.

“Baobabs” opens with Robinson’s steel pan approximating one of Sun Ra’s keyboards, pristine and unearthly metallic daubs mirrored by Lash’s supple plucked bass, rhapsodic cello and crystalline parlor chords clambering to the light. The ensemble exhibits momentary bared teeth, which result from Marshall’s dervish-like, swirling arco and its tendency towards taut, maddening physicality. Wadada Leo Smith’s “Nuru Light: The Prince of Peace” is a husky tone poem, piano, bass and cello painting broad strokes across the bottom end as Robinson’s minimalist ostinato adds flecks of light to the top. Guitar and steel-pan occupy proximal tonal worlds in a duet improvisation, unhurriedly exploring thematic implications. They’re replaced by cello and bass in a furious scumbled play, digging and plucking at both the canvas and one another in a bit of instrumental roughhousing.

The range of tonal colors and breadth of activity that this ensemble can actualize is staggering – the brief collective piece “Whirligig” quickly becomes frantic, darting pointillism, Robinson’s metal tones befitting a prepared piano or guitar, skittering conversation with upper-register piano flecks and cello scrapes. Fischer’s guitar employs a spry blues on “120:4,” another piece that takes advantage of the squirrely rapport of Lash and Marshall; it’s a testament to Hawkins’ arranging abilities that he’s able to coax cottony delicacy and ferrous weight in the same instance. That same weight and delicacy manifest themselves in Hawkins’ pianism, exemplified by “Old Time Folk Music from Oxford,” barbed dissonance and wrenching romanticism clear poles by which he operates. Early Morton Feldman and Paul Bley, as well as a hint of Jaki Byard, are influences and as he walks the tune home, it’s not without a few confounding inversions. I can’t say it too often about modern recordings, but the arrangement of Ra’s “Love in Outer Space” brought a tear to my eye – the familiar vamp rendered with such absolute joy and strength. There aren’t words to describe it – the piece just has to be heard. An incredible record, No Now Is So should put Alexander Hawkins on the map.

~ Clifford Allen