Bud Spencerterence Hill

Augmenting his rhythm section of bassist Richard Davis and drummer Elvin Jones with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, pianist Andrew Hill records an excellent set of subdued but adventurous post-bop with Judgment. Without any horns, the mood of the session is calmer than Black Fire, but Hill's compositions take more risks than before. Close listening reveals how he subverts hard bop structure and brings in rhythmic and harmonic elements from modal jazz and the avant-garde. The harmonic structure on each composition is quite complex, fluctuating between dissonant chords and nimble, melodic improvisations…

Compulsion continues Andrew Hill's progression, finding the pianist writing more complex compositions and delving even further into the avant-garde. Working with a large, percussion-heavy band featuring Freddie Hubbard (trumpet, flugelhorn), John Gilmore (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet), Cecil McBee (bass), Joe Chambers (drums), Renaud Simmons (conga), Nadi Qamar (percussion), and, for one track, Richard Davis (bass), Hill has created one of his most challenging dates. The extra percussion is largely used for texture, as is the dueling bass on "Premonition," and that's one of the reasons why the record is so interesting - it's a provocative, occasionally unsettling set of shifting tonal colors. Hill's compositions often seem more like sketches and blueprints than full-fledged songs…

Here is a collection of familiar classical music adagios given new interpretations by Windham Hill artists. Although most of the tracks do have synthesizer harmonies and embellishments, there are some that do not. The Brahms Intermezzo contains its own intermezzo in the form of a jazz piano trio improvisation. Edgar Meyer on double bass and Mike Marshall on mandolin perform a nice, straightforward transcription of the Prelude in C sharp minor from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, with no synthesized embellishments.

The seven "books" of Olivier Messiaen's enormous "Catalogue d'oiseaux (Catalogue of Birds)" were composed between 1956 and 1958. In all, they encompass two and a half hours of some of the most beautifully evocative music for solo piano ever penned. Peter Hill's epic survey of the complete piano music of Olivier Messiaen splits this particular cycle over three volumes, with the first three books being presented here. (For the other volumes see " Catalogue d'oiseaux, Books 4-6 ", " Catalogue d'oiseaux Book 7 ". This CD is also available as part of the Peter Hill's complete " Catalogue d'oiseaux " set and also within the " Messiaen - Complete Piano Works ".