Alex Hitchcock Quartet (NFOJAiM 2026)

Alex Hitchcock Quartet

The Globe - Newcastle

Sunday 27th September 2026

Seetickets: £14.00 + Booking and Processing Fee = £15.40

(£16.00 On The Door Subject To Capacity)

Doors: 7.00pm (Music Starts 8.00pm / 2 x 45 Minute Sets)

Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music 2026

For the fifth concert at this years Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music we welcome the internationally renowned virtuoso saxophonist Alex Hitchcock. 

Alex Hitchcock Quartet

Alex Hitchcock (Saxophone)

Will Barry (Piano)

Mats Sandahl (Bass)

Ananda Brandão (Drums)

Described as a "virtuoso" by The Guardian, saxophonist and Ivor Novello-nominated composer Alex Hitchcock is a leading voice on the international jazz stage. Emerging from London's fertile jazz scene and shaped by inventive collaborations across Europe, the US, and further afield, he has built an international reputation for music that balances real-world urgency with formal and stylistic exploration.

Following sold-out album launches in New York and London, Hitchcock tours a cutting-edge quartet performing music from his acclaimed new release, Letters From Afar, a sonic correspondence across emotional, geographic, and artistic distances.

The group's sound draws as much from film and visual art as from music itself: shimmering bitonal harmonies that bloom and fracture; layered textures of colour, density, and rhythmic asymmetry; loops and motifs that build, collide, and dissolve.

Hitchcock has carved out a distinctive space in contemporary jazz - at times intense and chaotic, at others disarmingly sparse and direct. Beneath the surface of the quartet's notated forms lies a deep commitment to free improvisation, creating music both tightly sculpted and thrillingly fluid.

This is music for curious, open-minded listeners drawn to art at the edge of beauty and disruption. Fans of Caroline Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, or Peter Evans will find familiar terrain though this is a group never content to stay in one place for long.

Live at Bimhuis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o66_nc4MlWc

Alex Hitchcock

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. 

He tours globally with his own quartet, performing at major venues and festivals including North Sea Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival, Jazz à Vienne, Love Supreme Jazz Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival, Ronnie Scott's, Bimhuis, the Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, and Glastonbury. 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

'An incredible saxophonist, with something very unique and original to say'

- Walter Smith III

'Intrepid tenor saxophonist corrals an astonishing array of UK & EU jazz talent'

- Uncut Magazine

'An absolutely fascinating musician as a composer, leader and soloist'

- France Musique

'One of the most interesting and innovative European saxophonists'

- Musica Jazz Magazine

www.alexhitchcock.com

www.newcastlefestivalofjazzandimprovisedmusic.co.uk

Presented by Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music alongside Jazz North East

The Globe

The Globe, 

11 Railway Street,

NE4 7AD

0191 272 5185 / info@jazz.coop

www.theglobenewcastle.bar

Age Restrictions | Accessibility | Travel

Age Restrictions: All ages welcome with under 18's accompanied by an adult.

Accessibility: Fully accessible for wheelchair users, a lift facility is available to access an upstairs fully accessible toilet.

Travel: Central Station Metro is located just under half a mile from the venue 

(approximately 8 minutes walk).

Buses: 12 / 12A / 22 / 22X to Scotswood Road.

Limited street parking outside of the venue, a small fee based car park is located across the road 

(Charges may apply).