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Hawkins, Alexander / Elaine Mitchener Quartet (w / Neil Charles / Stephen Davis) : UpRoot (Intakt)

Oxford-based keyboardist and composer Alexander Hawkins balances free improv and lyrical jazz forms in a quartet with bassist Neil Charles, drummer Stephen Davis, and vocalist Elaine Mitchener, with both Hawkins compositions and pieces from Archie Shepp, Jeanne Lee, and Patty Waters, a beautiful balance that appeals to modern listeners steeped in the history.
 

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Product Information:

Personnel:



Neil Charles-doublebass

Stephen Davis-drums, percussion

Alexander Hawkins-piano

Elaine Mitchener-voice

Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.



UPC: 7640120192976

Label: Intakt
Catalog ID: ITK297.2
Squidco Product Code: 25219

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2017
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded at Fish Factory Studios, in London, England, on April 19th and 20th, 2017, by Benedic Lamdin.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Neil Charles is a bassist, electronic producer and composer. He regularly performs, records and tours with numerous jazz, classical and contemporary music bands and ensembles like alex Hawkins, mingus big band, has played with Terence Blanchard, black top and is a member of the electro-acoustic jazz trio, Zed-U."

-Cafe Oto (https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/artists/neil-charles/)
10/29/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Stephen Davis is an Irish-born, Belfast-based jazz/free-improv drummer and composer.

-Squidco 10/29/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Alexander Hawkins is a composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader who is 'unlike anything else in modern creative music' (Ni Kantu) and whose recent work has reached a 'dazzling new apex' (Downbeat). A largely self-taught improviser, he works in a vast array of creative contexts. His own highly distinctive soundworld is forged through the search to reconcile both his love of free improvisation and profound fascination with composition and structure. In 2012, he was chosen as a member of the first edition of the London Symphony Orchestra's 'Soundhub' scheme for young composers. He also received a major BBC commission in late 2012 for a fifty minute composition: One Tree Found was first performed and broadcast in March 2013, and was subsequently performed and broadcast for the WDR in Cologne (2014). He has also twice been commissioned by the London Jazz Festival (once as composer, once as an arranger), and by the Cheltenham Jazz Festival (2016).

An in-demand sideman, Hawkins continues to be heard live and on record with vast array of contemporary leaders of all generations, including the likes of Evan Parker, John Surman, Joe McPhee, Mulatu Astatke, Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Marshall Allen, Rob Mazurek, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Harris Eisenstadt, amongst many others. He has also been noted in recent years for his performances in the bands of legendary South African drummer, Louis Moholo-Moholo. Concert appearances have taken him to club, concert and festival stages worldwide."

-Alexander Hawkins Website (http://www.alexanderhawkinsmusic.com/biographyimages.html)
10/29/2025

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"Elaine Mitchener is an experimental vocalist and movement artist whose work encompasses improvisation, contemporary composition, sound art, music theatre, physical theatre and performance art.

Born in East London to Jamaican parents, Elaine studied voice at Trinity College of Music, London and currently studies with Jacqueline Straubinger.

She has performed at numerous UK and European festivals, venues and galleries including Aldeburgh Music, London Contemporary Music Festival, 56th Venice Biennale, Wysing Arts, Café Oto (London), earsthetic (Brighton), Bluecoat (Liverpool), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Muziektheater Transparant (Antwerp), ULTIMA Festival (Oslo), SPILL Festival (Ipswich), La Monnaie (Brussels), Block Universe (London), White Cube (London), Whitechapel Gallery (London), Weserburg MOMA (Bremen), Hepworth (Wakefield), Wellcome Collection (London), and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London).

She has worked and performed in a wide variety of contexts with an array of leading musicians, composers, directors and visual artists including The Otolith Group, Deborah Warner, Christian Marclay, Apartment House, Steve Beresford, Irvine Arditti, Oliver Coates, Sonia Boyce, John Butcher, Attila Csihar, Rolf Hind, Dam Van Huynh, George Lewis, Alexander Hawkins, Tansy Davies, Phil Minton, Evan Parker, Alasdair Roberts, David Toop, Matt Wright, Brodsky Quartet, Jason Yarde, Barry Lewis, Sam Belinfante and Dai Fujikura.

Her production company Elaine Mitchener Projects has researched, developed, produced and toured or staged a number of projects including Industrialising Intimacy (with choreographer Dam Van Huynh, David Toop, George Lewis) which was premiered at Brighton's earsthetic; The Nude Voice (with Dam Van Huynh) which was commissioned for the Wellcome Collection London's THIS IS A VOICE exhibition; SWEET TOOTH, which has been presented as a work in progress at Aldeburgh Music and Bloomsbury Festival (London), and premiered in Liverpool in November 2017 in collaboration with Bluecoat, Stuart Hall Foundation, International Slavery Museum and Edge Hill University; 'I back... I neck... I face... I chest' which was commissioned by Sonia Boyce for her installation We Move In Her Way at London's ICA; Of Leonardo da Vinci (with Dam Van Huynh, David Toop, Barry Lewis) which was premiered at Oslo's ULTIMA Festival; the three hour durational performance [NAMES] premiered at Ipswich's SPILL Festival; and a presentation of John Cage's SongBooks for London's Poetry In The City Festival.

Elaine has participated in residencies at Aldeburgh Music (to develop SWEET TOOTH) and Fondazione Claudio Buziol, Venice (where she developed Of Leonardo Da Vinci supported by Muziektheater Transparant). She is co-founder of experimental jazz quartet the Hawkins/Mitchener Quartet, whose debut album will be launched in November 2017. Recent performances include IRMA by Tom Phillips RA (dir. Netia Jones), a selection of songs by Julius Eastman both with Apartment House in Poland, and The Cave by Tansy Davies, with libretto by Nick Drake, and tenor Mark Padmore, commissioned by London Sinfonietta in association with the Royal Opera House (WP June 2018)."

-Elaine Mitchener Website (http://www.elainemitchener.com/biog)
10/29/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:


Intakt
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Quartet Recordings
Melodic and Lyrical Jazz
Song Based Music
Unusual Vocal Forms
Jazz & Improvisation Based on Compositions

Search for other titles on the label:
Intakt.


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The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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