Break A Vase

After the album Togetherness Music, British pianist and composerAlexander Hawkins presents another musical panorama: An ensemblein which his trio with bassist Neil Charles and drummer StephenDavis meets saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings, guitaristOtto Fischer, and drummer Richard Olátúndé Baker. For anybodywho has followed Hawkins's work since his emergence on the Britishimprovised music scene in the mid 2000's this is a fresh band full offamiliar musicians with whom Hawkins has played in a wide variety offormations. The new pieces Break a Vase presents emerge fromHawkins' own imagination, but they also capture the thrust of energyin collaborating with these outstanding musicians.Hawkins gives one of his most complete performances to date, writesKevin Le Gendre in the liner notes. Nothing is perhaps more majesticthan the title track, which comes from Derek Walcott's acceptancespeech for the Nobel Prize. 'Break a Vase, and the love that re -assembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took it'ssymmetry for granted when it was whole.' Enjoy then all these wilybits and pieces that come together in the kind of daring, courageousconstruction that is made to last.