ALEX HITCHCOCK - Working Within A Dream
It’s a question that has absorbed bandleaders for many years: "who are the perfect musicians to bring my music to life?" As his upcoming album Dream Band suggests, virtuoso London saxophonist Alex Hitchcock has plenty of thoughts on the matter… In his second release with legendary Barcelona label Fresh Sound New Talent, the hotly-tipped frontman pulls together a pool of 15 musicians from both sides of the Atlantic to bring to life a set of forward-thinking music.
We talked to Alex about the album, his influences and the multitude of projects he's involved with.
How did this latest album concept come into being and how hard was it to realise?
At a time when travelling to play gigs was very difficult, I was thinking about how to draw people together from the incredible pool of musicians I’m lucky to play with regularly. I thought the idea of hearing three bands on one album would appeal to audiences who were familiar with most of the musicians on the record but perhaps would be encountering them in a new context. Writing the music happened reasonably quickly as it’s easy to be inspired when you have specific musicians to write for who all have really distinctive musical personalities.
Your latest project is a transatlantic one; what do you think has caused the international spotlight on ‘London Jazz’ as a scene and a sound in recent years?
People here are very thoughtful about how to present their own stories musically. Some of the scene’s strength lies in its variety – it’s musically broad enough that it can comfortably include people like Shabaka Hutchings, James Copus, Midori Jaeger, Binker and Moses, Maria Chiara Argirò, Joe Webb (and Webb City), Mark Kavuma (and the Banger Factory). That’s just off the top of my head – quite a disparate list but I think that proves the point and there's an incredible breadth of recordings that have come out in recent years just by those seven artists. George Nelson’s ‘Moment’s Notice’ nights are a great example of how exciting it can be when people from different parts of the scene come together and improvise. There’s lots of hype around London but it’s important to note that great music and musicians equally exist throughout the whole country too – Xhosa Cole (Birmingham), Faye MacCalman (NE England) and Corto Alto (Glasgow) come to mind.
Your new album is called “Dream Band” - who would you have added if you could choose anyone from history?
Charlie Parker, but I wouldn’t be playing.
How did you keep motivated and busy creatively during the recent lockdowns?
Having specific goals was really important - and the lockdown gave me time to focus primarily on the musical goals rather than career planning (which temporarily went out the window). It wasn’t easy to look forward to a time when gigging and touring would return because for large parts of the last two years we haven’t known exactly when venues and festivals would open up again. So, I was able to practise proactively rather than reactively, identifying areas of my playing I wanted to work on in depth rather than snatching an hour here and there between gigs to practise things I couldn’t do the night before. And then this Dream Band project provided a compositional focus, along with a remote recording project I did jointly with Ant Law with some guests from around the world.
Which of your musical heroes do you feel come through most strongly in your music?
People have told me they can hear Joshua Redman in my playing, which is both very flattering and makes sense to the extent that he was the first sax player I properly listened to along with Coleman Hawkins. I’m still finding my feet compositionally. I love writing by Ambrose Akinmusire, Becca Stevens, Jasper Høiby and Micah Thomas but I’m trying less to synthesise those influences and more to let them inform an existing style that is unique to me. I don’t think I’ve fully found a writing voice yet but I think there’s consistency in my ‘soundworld’. A few knowledgeable people have mentioned Pat Metheny in reference to some of the wordless vocal/sax combinations on ‘Dream Band’ which again is a big compliment but I’m not sure how much I hear that.
You seem to be involved in quite a few different projects; can you talk a little about those?
There are the ones that I co-lead and then I’m lucky to be involved in a wide variety of stuff. I enjoy the challenge of fitting into different musical environments and trying to make the music sound as good as possible – it’s particularly fun when the gigs are back to back and the musical environment changes night to night. I get to play in lots of great bass players’ projects (Joe Downard, Matt Ridley, John Williamson) and on the less acoustic end of things I’m part of Resolution 88 and played on James Beckwith’s album Long Distance. I’m working with some great musicians from Spain (Felix Rossy) and Italy (Michelangelo Scandroglio) to book and play quartet tours across those places and the UK, which is particularly important at the moment as UK musicians are at risk of isolation from the European scene thanks to Brexit. Also, one of my favourite things to do is dep in other people’s bands (as I’ve done with Maria Chiara Argirò and Liran Donin amongst others) which is always a great challenge.
You have a lot of great video content around your releases. Which has been your favourite to make so far?
I made one with Cherise Adams-Burnett that was shot across two locations – one in the studio during the recording session and the other on a live gig at the Royal Albert in Deptford, London. That night is legendary in the south east London scene and has a supportive and receptive younger crowd, and is curated by Tom Sankey who also shot and then cut the videos. It’s the most ‘produced’ music video I’ve been involved in so far and it cuts between the live and the studio performance, capturing the atmospheres in both really well through a mix of abstract and more direct shots. This one of Shane Forbes is particularly amazing I think!
What does your daily (or weekly) practice routine look like?
At the moment, I’m working on some difficult new music I wrote for my band AuB co-led with Tom Barford – we released on Edition Records in 2020 with Ferg Ireland and James Maddren and we have a second album recording coming up in February featuring Jasper Hoiby and Marc Michel as guests. I wanted to challenge myself when writing for that session because I know the rhythm sections involved will always play over the odd time signatures with total fluidity and ease. You’re always told that playing with people better than you is the way to improve! So I’ll loop certain sections and try out different rhythmic and harmonic approaches, and try and make improvising over the irregular structures feel natural across the whole range of the sax.
What are three big career goals you still need to tick off?
I’d like to tour properly with one of the guests from the remote recording project with Ant – but I can’t say who they are yet… If it’s the right fit, I’d like to work with a booking agent, that would save so much time and open up new touring possibilities. I also plan to live in both New York and either Paris or Berlin for an extended period and get stuck into the scenes there, I’d learn a lot from that.
What are you listening to on repeat at the moment?
Deciphering the Message – Makaya McCraven
Grand Slam – Joe Lovano/Jim Hall
Yasuke – Flying Lotus
Global – Godwin Louis
Vulture Prince – Arooj Aftab
Work Time – Sonny Rollins
Open Arms to Open Us – Ben LaMar Gay
We talked to Alex about the album, his influences and the multitude of projects he's involved with.
How did this latest album concept come into being and how hard was it to realise?
At a time when travelling to play gigs was very difficult, I was thinking about how to draw people together from the incredible pool of musicians I’m lucky to play with regularly. I thought the idea of hearing three bands on one album would appeal to audiences who were familiar with most of the musicians on the record but perhaps would be encountering them in a new context. Writing the music happened reasonably quickly as it’s easy to be inspired when you have specific musicians to write for who all have really distinctive musical personalities.
Your latest project is a transatlantic one; what do you think has caused the international spotlight on ‘London Jazz’ as a scene and a sound in recent years?
People here are very thoughtful about how to present their own stories musically. Some of the scene’s strength lies in its variety – it’s musically broad enough that it can comfortably include people like Shabaka Hutchings, James Copus, Midori Jaeger, Binker and Moses, Maria Chiara Argirò, Joe Webb (and Webb City), Mark Kavuma (and the Banger Factory). That’s just off the top of my head – quite a disparate list but I think that proves the point and there's an incredible breadth of recordings that have come out in recent years just by those seven artists. George Nelson’s ‘Moment’s Notice’ nights are a great example of how exciting it can be when people from different parts of the scene come together and improvise. There’s lots of hype around London but it’s important to note that great music and musicians equally exist throughout the whole country too – Xhosa Cole (Birmingham), Faye MacCalman (NE England) and Corto Alto (Glasgow) come to mind.
Your new album is called “Dream Band” - who would you have added if you could choose anyone from history?
Charlie Parker, but I wouldn’t be playing.
How did you keep motivated and busy creatively during the recent lockdowns?
Having specific goals was really important - and the lockdown gave me time to focus primarily on the musical goals rather than career planning (which temporarily went out the window). It wasn’t easy to look forward to a time when gigging and touring would return because for large parts of the last two years we haven’t known exactly when venues and festivals would open up again. So, I was able to practise proactively rather than reactively, identifying areas of my playing I wanted to work on in depth rather than snatching an hour here and there between gigs to practise things I couldn’t do the night before. And then this Dream Band project provided a compositional focus, along with a remote recording project I did jointly with Ant Law with some guests from around the world.
Which of your musical heroes do you feel come through most strongly in your music?
People have told me they can hear Joshua Redman in my playing, which is both very flattering and makes sense to the extent that he was the first sax player I properly listened to along with Coleman Hawkins. I’m still finding my feet compositionally. I love writing by Ambrose Akinmusire, Becca Stevens, Jasper Høiby and Micah Thomas but I’m trying less to synthesise those influences and more to let them inform an existing style that is unique to me. I don’t think I’ve fully found a writing voice yet but I think there’s consistency in my ‘soundworld’. A few knowledgeable people have mentioned Pat Metheny in reference to some of the wordless vocal/sax combinations on ‘Dream Band’ which again is a big compliment but I’m not sure how much I hear that.
You seem to be involved in quite a few different projects; can you talk a little about those?
There are the ones that I co-lead and then I’m lucky to be involved in a wide variety of stuff. I enjoy the challenge of fitting into different musical environments and trying to make the music sound as good as possible – it’s particularly fun when the gigs are back to back and the musical environment changes night to night. I get to play in lots of great bass players’ projects (Joe Downard, Matt Ridley, John Williamson) and on the less acoustic end of things I’m part of Resolution 88 and played on James Beckwith’s album Long Distance. I’m working with some great musicians from Spain (Felix Rossy) and Italy (Michelangelo Scandroglio) to book and play quartet tours across those places and the UK, which is particularly important at the moment as UK musicians are at risk of isolation from the European scene thanks to Brexit. Also, one of my favourite things to do is dep in other people’s bands (as I’ve done with Maria Chiara Argirò and Liran Donin amongst others) which is always a great challenge.
You have a lot of great video content around your releases. Which has been your favourite to make so far?
I made one with Cherise Adams-Burnett that was shot across two locations – one in the studio during the recording session and the other on a live gig at the Royal Albert in Deptford, London. That night is legendary in the south east London scene and has a supportive and receptive younger crowd, and is curated by Tom Sankey who also shot and then cut the videos. It’s the most ‘produced’ music video I’ve been involved in so far and it cuts between the live and the studio performance, capturing the atmospheres in both really well through a mix of abstract and more direct shots. This one of Shane Forbes is particularly amazing I think!
What does your daily (or weekly) practice routine look like?
At the moment, I’m working on some difficult new music I wrote for my band AuB co-led with Tom Barford – we released on Edition Records in 2020 with Ferg Ireland and James Maddren and we have a second album recording coming up in February featuring Jasper Hoiby and Marc Michel as guests. I wanted to challenge myself when writing for that session because I know the rhythm sections involved will always play over the odd time signatures with total fluidity and ease. You’re always told that playing with people better than you is the way to improve! So I’ll loop certain sections and try out different rhythmic and harmonic approaches, and try and make improvising over the irregular structures feel natural across the whole range of the sax.
What are three big career goals you still need to tick off?
I’d like to tour properly with one of the guests from the remote recording project with Ant – but I can’t say who they are yet… If it’s the right fit, I’d like to work with a booking agent, that would save so much time and open up new touring possibilities. I also plan to live in both New York and either Paris or Berlin for an extended period and get stuck into the scenes there, I’d learn a lot from that.
What are you listening to on repeat at the moment?
Deciphering the Message – Makaya McCraven
Grand Slam – Joe Lovano/Jim Hall
Yasuke – Flying Lotus
Global – Godwin Louis
Vulture Prince – Arooj Aftab
Work Time – Sonny Rollins
Open Arms to Open Us – Ben LaMar Gay
