British pianist Alexander Hawkins makes jazz that sounds familiar and yet unimaginable. This is his first trio album, with two very savvy partners in bassist Neil Charles and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, and it works the same magic. You can hear Hawkins’ use of Ellington harmonies against Skinner’s peremptory snare flurries and Charles’ prodding basslines in Sweet Duke, while Song Singular bristles with Cecil Taylor-like improv flights and a steely intelligence. One Tree Found is an irresistibly catchy walk that breaks up into staccato epithets and grooves; 40HB is an intricate phrase-layering game in tribute to trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum (Hawkins’ partner in the Convergence Quartet), and the 10-minute Baobabs mixes flinty improv encounters with lyrically ringing chords over a striding pulse. It’s taken Hawkins a while to get around to the classic jazz piano-trio format, but he makes it memorably his own.
