I wanted to make a project that could only happen at this specific moment in time, bringing together different musicians I’ve connected with over my time in London. Lockdown offered an opportunity, both to get the musicians together practically but also to respond positively (and with unity) to the difficult past year. I wanted to create space for these musicians to express themselves and shape my music – some of whom I’ve worked with for 10 years, and some of whom are new to me.
I felt lucky to be surrounded by so many distinctive and contrasting voices, wanted to capture that variety in an album rather than just recording one band. At a time when people weren’t able to play and create as much I wanted to go the other way, taking a maximalist approach to make something that was ambitious and wide ranging.
Partly, it was a kind of ‘curating’ – I wanted to bring these combinations of musicians together and allow them to make the music their own – every single musician made creative decisions over the three days’ recording that changed the direction of the tune as I’d originally conceived it.
The title, ‘Dream Band’ – I imagined what different combinations of my favourite musicians would sound like and wrote music for that. But it’s not something that’s totally fixed, with the lineups changing throughout the album. There are multiple possible dream bands…
1. Wolf and Nina (feat. Midori Jaeger)
2. Yeshaya
3. intro
4. to love itself
5. outro
6. FSTL (feat. Chris Cheek, David Adewumi)
7. Move 37
8. Azalea (feat. midori jaeger)
9. Embers
10. Overcome Any Obstacle with a Horse
11. Simulacra
12. And Then
ALEX HITCHCOCK saxophone (all tracks)
CHERISE ADAMS-BURNETT voice (Tracks 4, 6)
CHRIS CHEEK saxophone (Track 6)
DAVID ADEWUMI trumpet (Track 6)
DESCHANEL GORDON piano (Tracks 1, 10)
FERG IRELAND bass (Tracks 2, 7, 9, 11)
JAS KAYSER drums (Tracks 1, 10)
JASON BROWN drums (Tracks 2, 7, 9, 11)
JOE DOWNARD bass (Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 12)
LUISITO QUINTERO percussion (Track 7)
MIDORI JAEGER voice/cello (Tracks 1, 8, 10)
NOAH STONEMAN piano (Tracks 2, 7, 11)
SHANE FORBES drums (Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 12)
WILL BARRY piano (Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 12)
WILL SACH bass (Tracks 1, 10)
SONNY JOHNS recording & mixing engineer
JORDI PUJOL executive producer
All tracks written by Alex Hitchcock apart from Azalea by Duke Ellington. Lyrics to Wolf and Nina by Midori Jaeger.
Recorded at Fish Factory, London for Fresh Sound New Talent, 10-12th May 2021
