Alexander Hawkins is a composer, pianist, organist and bandleader whose work is ‘unlike anything else in modern creative music’. Working in an array of creative contexts, his own unique soundworld is forged through the search to reconcile both a love of free improvisation and a profound fascination with composition and structure. His writing represents ‘a fundamental reassertion of composition within improvised music’, and his voice is 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 as both player and composer.’ 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 Evan Parker, John Surman, Han Bennink, Hamid Drake, Sofia Jernberg and Tomeka Reid), 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’.