Blue Andrew Hill

Andrew Hill - Change (1966) {2007 Blue Note Connoisseur CD Series}
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© 1966, 2007 Blue Note / Capitol | 0946 3 85190 2 7 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano

Of the many jazz pianists who came of age in the 1960s, the brilliant Andrew Hill was not only one of the best, but among the most underrated. Perhaps this is due to Hill's subtle, minimalist, Thelonious Monk-derived style, which was alternately too conservative to attract attention from the out movement, yet too unusual for the average straight-ahead jazz fan. CHANGE is a session from 1966, previously available only as part of a long-out-of-print Sam Rivers Blue Note set issued in the '70s.

Pax is one of those seminal Andrew Hill albums that sat locked in Blue Note's vaults for a decade before the first five cuts here were finally released as part of a double-LP package in 1975 entitled One for One. The final pair, recorded at the same time, didn't see the light of day until they appeared on the limited-edition Mosaic Select Blue Note recordings a decade after that. The personnel on this disc is a dream band: Hill with Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Richard Davis, and Joe Chambers. All of the these players but Hubbard had played with Hill before, and the telepathy is simply synchronistic. The opening cut, "Eris," is a sprawling blues clocking in at nearly 11 minutes. Full of Hill's knotty harmonics, and truly fiery playing by Hill and Hubbard, it's one of Hill's finest moments on record from the mid-'60s…

Compulsion is the eighth jazz album by pianist Andrew Hill. It was originally released in 1966 under the Blue Note Label as BST 84217. Hill's intention was to "…construct an album expressing the legacy of the Negro tradition.", and to use the piano more as a percussive instrument than a melodic one. The second number, "Legacy", was dedicated to the Afro-American legacy, and is followed by "Premonition", which Hill described as " indicating not alone a look ahead, but rather a sufficiently revealing look backward, so that you can really begin to know what may come."

Point of Departure is the fifth album by jazz pianist and composer Andrew Hill, recorded and released in 1964 on the Blue Note label. Point of Departure was reissued on CD by Blue Note in 1988 and again in 1999 when recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder remastered the album, adding alternate takes of "New Monastery", "Flight 19", and "Dedication".

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill is perhaps known more for this date than any other in his catalog - and with good reason. Hill's complex compositions straddled many lines in the early to mid-1960s and crossed over many. Point of Departure, with its all-star lineup (even then), took jazz and wrote a new book on it, excluding nothing. With Eric Dolphy and Joe Henderson on saxophones (Dolphy also played clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute), Richard Davis on bass, Tony Williams on drums, and Kenny Dorham on trumpet, this was a cast created for a jazz fire dance. From the opening moments of "Refuge," with its complex minor mode intro that moves headlong via Hill's large, open chords that flat sevenths, ninths, and even 11ths in their striding to move through the mode, into a wellspring of angular hard bop and minor-key blues…

Judgment! is a the fourth studio album by jazz pianist Andrew Hill, recorded and released in 1964 on Blue Note Records. Composed of a rhythm section and vibraphone - played by Bobby Hutcherson - Hill weaves his music around a complex harmonic structure.

Andrew Hill returned to the Blue Note label (where he made many significant releases during 1963-80) for a stimulating quintet date with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, altoist Greg Osby, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Ben Riley in 1989. The pianist's six originals (which are joined by three alternate takes on the CD) his dense chords behind the other improvisers and his own unpredictable solos are not all overshaowed by his talented sideman, even Osby who is heard in particularly inspired form. There are no weak performances on this superb post bop effort, Andrew Hill's strongest recording in several years.

Andrew Hill - Dance With Death (1968) {2004 BN Connoisseur CD Series}
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© 2004 Blue Note / Capitol | 7243 4 73160 2 9 | 24-bit remaster
Jazz / Post Bop / Piano

Andrew Hill's Dance of 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 - Mosaic Select 16 (2005) {3 Disc Set, EMI–Mosaic Records MS-016 rec 1967-1970}
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© 1967-70, 2005 EMI Music / Mosaic Records | MS-016
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano

Of all the volumes in the Mosaic Select series, this one, and the Big John Patton box, are the most satisfying, though for very different reasons. This one is a true collector's gem. For starters, all but six of the 31 cuts on this three-CD box are previously unreleased. For Hill fans who knew there was more in the can, this is a most welcoming find. The material here was completely composed by Hill and was recorded in five sessions between 1967 and 1970. The pianist and composer is found in three different settings, from trio to sextet and septet with some octet sides. The personnel here varies, too. The sextet sessions feature Hill with Bennie Maupin, Pat Patrick, Charles Tolliver, Ron Carter, and either Paul Motian or Ben Riley on drums. These are the earliest cuts here and they are solid as solid can be.

Black Fire, Andrew Hill's debut record for Blue Note, was an impressive statement of purpose that retains much of its power decades after its initial release. Hill's music is quite original, building from a hard bop foundation and moving into uncharted harmonic and rhythmic territory. His compositions and technique take chances; he often sounds restless, searching relentlessly for provocative voicings, rhythms, and phrases. Black Fire borrows from the avant-garde, but it's not part of it - the structures remain quite similar to bop, and there are distinct melodies. Nevertheless, Hill and his band - comprised of tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Roy Haynes - are not content with the limitations of hard bop…