Blue Andrew Hill

Andrew Hill - Smoke Stack (1963) {Blue Note Japan TOCJ-4160 rel 1994}
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© 1963, 1994 Blue Note / Toshiba-EMI Japan | TOCJ-4160
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano

A fantastic session by this groundbreaking modernist – essentially a piano trio album, but recorded with two bass players – Richard Davis & Eddie Kahn – one of whom plays rhythm, the other who solos along with Hill. The result is one of Hill's darkest piano outings, brought even deeper by the bass accompaniment, and the lack of any other horns to support the set. The album includes Hill's brilliant "Ode to Von", dedicated to Von Freeman, one of his early teachers – plus the tracks "Verne", "Not So", "Wailing Wall", and "The Day After".

Andrew Hill - Andrew!!! (1964) {Blue Note Japan SHM-CD UCCQ-5115 rel 2015} (24-192 remaster)
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© 1964, 2015 Universal Japan / Blue Note | BN 75th The Masterworks | UCCQ-5115
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano

Reissue. Features the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest 24bit 192kHz remastering. Quite possibly our favorite album ever from pianist Andrew Hill – a really unique outing that features the vibes of Bobby Hutcherson and a rare non-Sun Ra appearance by tenorist John Gilmore! The presence of Hutcherson brings a real "new thing" energy to the album – a feel that's similar to Bobby's classic Dialogue album, of which Hill was such an important part. But the searching tenor of Gilmore also brings a striking new level to the session as well – and his solos open up with a raw, earthy quality that really shades in the album with a great deal of feeling. Gilmore's role here is a bit like that of Joe Henderson on his freer Blue Note material – but his sound still undeniably unique, at a level that really makes us wish he'd recorded more albums like this at the time. The tracks are all originals by Hill, and include the titles "Duplicity", "Black Monday", "The Griots", and "Le Serpent Qui Danse". CD features 2 bonus alternate takes too!

Andrew Hill - Dance With Death (1968) {2012 Blue Note Japan BNLT Series TOCJ-50282}
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© 1968, 2012 Blue Note / EMI Music Japan | TOCJ-50282 | 24bit remastering
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano

Andrew Hill's Dance with Death, recorded in 1968 with a stellar band, was not issued until 1980. In the late 1960s, Blue Note was no longer the most adventurous of jazz labels. While certain titles managed to scrape through – Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music did but only because Francis Wollf personally financed it – many didn't. The label was firmly in the soul-jazz groove by then, and Hill's music, always on the edge, was deemed too outside for the label's roster. Musically, this is Hill at his most visionary. From hard- and post bop frames come modal and tonal inquiries of staggering complexity.

Andrew Hill - Smoke Stack (1963) {2006 BN Rudy Van Gelder Remaster}
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© 2006 Blue Note | 0946 3 37777 2 9 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Post Bop / Piano

This 1963 trio session was only the avant-garde pianist and composer Andrew Hill's second release for Blue Note, with whom he would enjoy a fruitful association throughout the decade. Already, on the previous BLACK FIRE, Hill had established himself as a worthy, somewhat more mainstream alternative to the radical Cecil Taylor. His musical style is heavily chromatic, both dense and angular, similar in part to McCoy Tyner's equally muscular explorations. For the most part however, SMOKE STACK takes things at a ruminative, deceptively leisurely pace. Still, the venerable drummer Roy Haynes remains energetic, supple. and busy throughout the set, much like the fiery Elvin Jones with the John Coltrane Quartet. One highlight: Richard Davis's arco bass stylings, moaning and keening throughout the exotic "Wailing Wall."

Anyone familiar with Andrew Hill's music will find the cover to Andrew!!! a little bizarre, to say the least. Hill was one of the most intense and cerebral musicians on Blue Note's roster, incorporating avant-garde and modal techniques into his adventurous post-bop. The cover to Andrew!!! apparently is an attempt to humanize Hill - it's a soft-focus close-up of a smiling Andrew Hill, who looks more like a teen idol than a serious jazz musician, and the first-name title is adorned with no less than three exclamation marks and a subtitle, "The Music of Andrew Hill," which suggests that it's an album of romantic, easy-listening standards. It's not. Andrew!!! is just as adventurous and challenging as any of his other albums, which is to Hill's credit…

As the '60s drew to a close, Blue Note spent less time than ever with adventurous music, since it didn't sell as well as soul-jazz or mainstream hard bop. So, it may seem a little strange that the label invited Andrew Hill back to record in 1968, two years after he last cut a session for the label. Hill's work for the label stands among the most challenging cerebral post-bop of the '60s, but there was another side of Hill that wasn't showcased on those records: He also had a knack for groove and melody, as indicated by his composition "The Rumproller," a hard-grooving hard-bop classic made famous by trumpeter Lee Morgan. That was the side that Blue Note wanted to showcase on Grass Roots. Hill and his band were working from the basic template of making a commercial hard-bop album, but nevertheless pushed themselves to challenging territory…

Andrew Hill - Grass Roots (ft. Lee Morgan) (1968) {2000 BN Connoisseur CD Series}
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© 2000 Blue Note / Capitol | 7243 5 22672 2 4 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Post Bop / Piano

As the '60s drew to a close, Blue Note spent less time than ever with adventurous music, since it didn't sell as well as soul-jazz or mainstream hard bop. So, it may seem a little strange that the label invited Andrew Hill back to record in 1968, two years after he last cut a session for the label. Hill's work for the label stands among the most challenging cerebral post-bop of the '60s, but there was another side of Hill that wasn't showcased on those records: He also had a knack for groove and melody, as indicated by his composition "The Rumproller," a hard-grooving hard-bop classic made famous by trumpeter Lee Morgan.

Andrew Hill was, like Herbie Nichols, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, or Sonny Clark, an individualist, a follower of his own internal beat, and a rare example of humaness laid out for all to see. An individualist is someone most people want to be, and who most people pretend to admire, but ironically someone who many people despise in actual practice. As a composer and player Andrew Hill could draw violent, venom-spitting reactions by simply following this own way towards a melding of the avant-garde and jazz tradition through the prism of his particular and unique point of view. ~ Amazon

Anyone familiar with Andrew Hill's music will find the cover to Andrew!!! a little bizarre, to say the least. Hill was one of the most intense and cerebral musicians on Blue Note's roster, incorporating avant-garde and modal techniques into his adventurous post-bop. The cover to Andrew!!! apparently is an attempt to humanize Hill. ~ AllMusic

Andrew Hill - But Not Farewell (1990) {Blue Note CDP 7 94971 2}
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© 1990 Blue Note / Capitol | CDP 7 94971 2
Jazz / Post Bop / Piano

This is a recommended set of stimulating post-bop jazz. Andrew Hill's highly distinctive piano playing and unusual compositions hint at the past while following their own rules. The feeling of polyrhythms is present in several of Hill's seven compositions on this CD. The tightness of the bass-drum team (Lonnie Plaxico and Cecil Brooks) is quite impressive, as is the blend of Robin Eubanks' warm trombone and Greg Osby's alto.