Bud Spencerterence Hill

Schütz’s ‘Christmas story’ is an absolute delight from beginning to end, its charming tableaux of angels, shepherds and wise men completely belying the composer’s old age and constrained circumstances. Here it’s the jubilant climax to a programme of Christmas motets from the 1640s.

After four years mostly off of records, the innovative pianist/composer Andrew Hill re-emerged for this Freedom set, which has since been reissued on CD. The program is split between quintet numbers with altoist Lee Konitz (who doubles on soprano) and trumpeter Ted Curson, and quartet performances that showcase the somewhat forgotten altoist Robin Kenyatta. In addition, "Invitation," the one Hill nonoriginal, is taken as a spontaneous duet with Konitz.

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 was one of the greatest pianists of the '60s, but he never quite received his due. Hill was a skillful, cerebral musician that consciously positioned his music between hard bop and free. He was at his peak in the mid-'60s, as his playing and composing continued to explore new territory. All of his seminal recordings for Blue Note between 1963 and 1966 are collected on the limited-edition, seven-disc box set The Complete Blue Note Andrew Hill Sessions (1963-66). During those three years, he recorded with an astonishing array of talents, including Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Sam Rivers, Joe Henderson, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Richard Davis, Joe Chambers, John Gilmore, and Kenny Dorham. The box features 15 alternate takes, including ten previously unreleased cuts and a composition that has never been released…

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…

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…

Buck Hill recorded three sets for SteepleChase during 1978-81, one for a smaller European label and then nothing until 1989. Unlike most of his earlier dates, this Muse CD is mostly comprised of standards (six out of eight songs) and puts the emphasis on the boppish side of the tenor's style, greatly assisted by pianist Barry Harris, bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Freddie Waits. Hill romps throughout the program, particularly on such numbers as "Tenor Madness," "Stompin' at the Savoy" and "On the Trail."