Saxophone
Alex Hitchcock is a London-born saxophonist, composer, arranger, and producer based in New York. He draws inspiration politically as much as musically from artists in the radical tradition of Black American music, including Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Hazel Scott, Ma Rainey, and Max Roach. His work reckons with the politics embedded in both the history and form of this music—and the struggle, resistance, and reinvention that have shaped it.
Since emerging as a leader, Hitchcock has released four solo albums to widespread critical acclaim. The Guardian described him as a “virtuoso” saxophonist, while BBC Jazz World hailed him as “leading the charge in terms of new jazz music being created in the UK.” His work has been featured on the BBC, France Musique, WDR, JazzFM, Worldwide FM, and in leading publications such as Downbeat, MOJO, Jazzwise, Musica Jazz, Stereogum, and Uncut.
Hitchcock is a two-time Ivor Novello Composer Award nominee (2020, 2022), Parliamentary Jazz Awards nominee for Best Album (2023), winner of the Peter Whittingham Award (2018), and recipient of a major prize at the 2019 Umbria Jazz Festival. His compositions often begin with forms designed to be dismantled: grooves that fray, harmonies that warp, structures that appear in unexpected places before disintegrating under collective pressure. Hitchcock has carved out a unique space in contemporary jazz: at times intense and chaotic, at others disarmingly sparse and direct.
He tours globally with his own quartet, performing at major venues and festivals including Ronnie Scott’s, the Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, Glastonbury, Bimhuis, North Sea Jazz Festival, Jazz à Vienne, Umbria Jazz Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival, and Love Supreme. Most recently, he has appeared in the working quartet of Detroit piano legend (and Dexter Gordon side musician) Kirk Lightsey, touring across the UK, France, Germany, and Switzerland.
