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miscellaneous reviews

Prevost, Wilkinson, Hawkins

...fiercely interactive spontaneously improvised music of great power and subtlety.
Prevost combines bristling energy with superb control, so that his dynamic and textural variations set the tone for the group performance and provide its hearbeat; Wilkinson, however, gives the music its almost palpable form, sculpting phrases, lines, flurries, blurts, honks, squeals and any other noises capable of being produced by a saxophone from both his horns.
He also vocalises alongside Prevost's drumming, a process he merges almost imperceptibly into his playing to gre effect. Free music can occasionally come across (or not come across) as a little self-involved, fun to play but somewhat forbidding for an audience; Prevost's band, however, while clearly totally involved in their soundworld, managed to communicate their passion and commitment to a respectably sized crowd, moving without undue contrivance between producing the faintest of small sounds and the most unrestrained collective blowing. A treat.

Chris Parker, www.vortexjazz.co.uk


'one to watch'

Jez Nelson, BBC Radio 3, Jazz on 3


'a wizard's touch'

Anne Ryan, Moving Tone News


'There's a diamond-hard edge to his touch and a Taylorian bent to his brief, sort-of-unison motifs, though his improvising prefers fast-flying detail to all devouring flurries'

Mwanji Ezana, be.jazz


...With an irrepressible sense of form and groove and a faultless technique, Hawkins is a musician who is rapidly gaining a reputation as a player of both fine jazz and imaginative improvisation...

Paul Medley, The Oxford Times


...The opening quartet of relatively new players (playing together for the first time in this particular combination) headed by Oxford based pianist Alexander Hawkins [sic: actually an Olie Brice ensemble!], provided a suitable omen for the future of the music. Hawkins is imaginative and can play at blinding speed...

Phil England, The Wire


Pianist Alexander Hawkins...can be expansive in his approach -  he clearly has the technique to be as florid as he likes - but he is also tightly controlled and keenly aware of what.s going on around him, so that he's as likely to be providing textural detail, by plucking the strings inside the piano or using 'small' instruments (undoubtedly an AACM influence, although sparingly employed), as he is to roam the length and breadth of the keyboard.

David Grundy, eartrip