Label: Intakt Records, 2022
Personnel - Alexander Hawkins: grand and upright pianos, sampler; Shabaka Hutchings: tenor and soprano saxophones, flute; Otto Fischer: electric guitar; Neil Charles: acoustic and electric bass; Stephen Davis: drums; Richard Olatunde Baker: percussion.
The British pianist, composer and bandleader Alexander Hawkins, who stinted with the iconic multi-reedist Anthony Braxton in 2020, released one of the most exciting albums of last year - Togetherness Music (For Sixteen Musicians) - establishing himself as a fascinating composer. On his new outing, Break a Vase, he enlists another set of capable musicians who form the highly contrapuntal Mirror Canon ensemble.
His 10 original pieces on the album take different group configurations, starting and ending as solo piano efforts. While the opener, “The Perfect Sound Would Like to be Unique”, is immersed in a granular pensive aura; the closer, “Even the Birds Stop Listening”, includes samples and gamelan-like sounds that come from the prepared piano.
The first great moment of the album is “Stamped Down, or Shovelled”, a tribute to the saxophonist Henry Threadgill, which attaches a modern vibe to the groove and squeezes a fluid melody into the catchy theme. There are concurrent statements from Shabaka Hutchings on tenor and Otto Fischer on electric guitar. The latter, toggling between melodic creativity and free comping, keeps his thing going on during Hawkins’ eloquent piano solo, and the piece finishes with a 30-second percussion statement by Richard Olatunde Baker, who, together with drummer Stephen Davis, shares responsibility for the 6/8 feel of the coda.
“Generous Souls” is another highlight professed with as much motivation as confidence. The angular phrasing in the theme and the elasticity of the piano bring to mind some Tim Berne’s music, and Hutchings fills it with crying multiphonics and dark lines, whereas a relentless piano ostinato in five backs Fischer’s guitar solo. Equally arranged in quintuple meter is “Chaplin in Slow Motion”, where the pianist wrangles comfortably through registers over the languishing yet magnetic groove laid down by the bassist Neil Charles.
Both “Sun Rigged Billions” and “Domingada Open Air” validate an impressionistic abstraction that is elevated by the prepared piano. The former, titled after a quote by Emily Dickinson, explores curious rhythmic possibilities with the flute at the fore; the latter, alluding to the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, flies on the wings of a soprano sax before finalizing with strong parallel lyricism.
The ambiance gets more jubilant on “Stride Rhyme Gospel”, a swaggering piece that grows rambunctious as it advances, just to end up in a smooth world-music-influenced kind of dance.
Artistically edgy, Hawkins likes to push his limits, populating his recordings with invariably exciting ideas. This album has excellent moments of interplay and improvisation.
Favorite Tracks:
02 - Stamped Down, or Shoveled ► 04 - Generous Souls ► 08 - Domingada Open Air