Review: Andrew Hill - Andrew

Andrew Hill in the 1960's forged a strong relationship with Blue Note head Alfred Lion that lead to the pianist creating and recording some of the finest avant-garde post-bop jazz of the period. As enjoyably cerebral and challenging as his work is however, it was (and sometimes remains) clearly difficult music to market, and of course to sell. Which can really be the only reason why this most intense and resolutely uncommercial of artists appears on the front cover in glorious smiling teen pop-idol soft-focus. Indeed, if ever there was to be a jazz pin-up to rival Chet Baker from this time, then this is the photo that would do it.

The ubiquitous Blue Note exclamation marks too make their return, complete with oddly unnecessary subtitling, meaning we get a title that reads bizarrely like a lounge singers churned out bland covers album. Don't be fooled though, 'Andrew!!! The Music Of Andrew Hill' is one of the man’s very best - and also, with terrible irony, one of his very hardest to find.

Backed by a team of familiar stars and Hill collaborators, we are treated to an unusual piano, sax, vibraphone, bass and drums line-up. Rhythm is superbly handled by Hill regular Richard Davis on bass and Blue Note favourite Joe Chambers on drums, while Hill lays down his tightly knit complex piano lines with rising star Bobby Hutcherson’s vibes on top. And yet despite this, the star saxophonist guesting here is what will grab many jazz fans attentions.

John Gilmore held one of the strongest most distinct voices on the tenor saxophone, that had always led many critics to compare him favourably with John Coltrane (lesser known of course is that Coltrane had in the late fifties actually studied under Gilmore), but unlike Coltrane, Gilmore had never actually been particularly bothered about becoming a leader or star in his own right. Happy to maintain a unique position in Sun Ra’s Arkestra as his right hand man, and always given highly interesting music to play, Gilmore was rarely recorded playing with anyone else, and many were perplexed at his extreme loyalty to Ra. His appearance here with Hill then is most noteworthy, before you’ve even heard a single minute. Luckily then, his playing from the first note is nothing short of exemplary.

Together this awesome band storm their way through six addictively hypnotic Hill originals full of his trademark complexities and flourishes, that though enthralling are probably among his least easily accessible at first listen. It's this same energetic restlessness however that creates the real success in the music here too. Yes, it is complicated densely woven tapestry, and so obviously fails as easy background dinner music, but all brought together it creates an eminently listenable experience all its own that draws the listener in and doesn't let up for a single moment.

One of Hills very best recordings, it puzzlingly remains one of his most neglected, currently existing solely on Blue Note's valuable yet undersold limited Connessieur label (as opposed to the much wider Michael Cuscuna or Rudy Van Gelder reissue programs). As such, it comes wholeheartedly and fully recommended - just be prepared to pay that little bit extra. But don't worry, sitting up there with career high Point Of Departure’ it's 100% worth the cost.

*****

Review: Andrew Hill - Smoke Stack

Although I love Andrew Hill, I have to concede he wasn't always great...

Andrew Hill’s debut for the Blue Note label, ‘Black Fire’, was a new and unique voice in the jazz world, with powerful Afro-Carribean rhythms carrying some very strong free-sounding hard bop - or at least Hill’s own distinct, unique take on hard bop. His follow-up ‘Smoke Stack’ makes the bold step of stripping those incredible beats and focusing instead on his more intellectual favoured side of the music, with a set comprised entirely of his own composition.

The album ‘Smoke Stack’ then lands dead-in-the-middle between hard bop and free jazz; lacking the sometimes inaccessible dissonance of free, but with lengthy multi-directional improvisations and soft structures, notably more challenging than most bop orientated music. As interesting as it is though, it is not ‘Black Fire’ by a long way and it is definitely a much lesser recording.

A great band, featuring both Richard Davis and Eddie Khan on bass (that’s right, a quartet with two bassists)

 and the legendary Roy Haynes on drums, provide outstanding backing, but for the majority it’s all Hill’s show. Taking the lion’s share of space here, the pianist seems to at times be lacking his usual crystal sharp focus, and meanders for just a bit too long during many sections that become both overly introspective and a little hazy.

Mostly it’s a quietly restrained affair that promises to deliver something great, but then doesn’t quite get there. Like many freer works of the time, it’s one that nessecitates the listener pays close attention to hear the subtle nuances and various layers that can be peeled back to reveal something more every time. However, unlike many of Hill’s works, this session does not really repay the effort. Not to say it’s a bad record, far from it, but the very inward-looking and cerebral stance here provides equal parts interest and frustration. Full of highs, it also comes with long passages of both exhausting and wandering listening, and as such it comes up short. ‘Smoke Stack’ then is disappointingly a merely above average recording from a usually five star artist.

***

Review: Andrew Hill - Black Fire

Andrew Hill is one of my favourite piano players, not just as a player, and not just as a composer but the whole package - Hill as an exhileratingformer of his own material. His music is an underrated delight - always complex, always involving and sometimes reaching high peaks of emotional intensity. Any of his Blue Note work throughout the 1960's is well worth investigating. And aside from his career peak of 'Point Of Departure' (featuring none other than Eric Dolphy) you can't make a better starting point than his debut as leader - 'Black Fire'.

Andrew Hill was a firm fixture of the Blue Note roster during the sixties, recording a dozen albums as a bandleader as well as contributing his highly personal, distinctive playing and compositional talents to a number of well-renowned artists on the label. Later as part of the free movement, his work was perhaps less austere and more accessible than that of his more well-known contemporary Cecil Taylor, although his determination to play only his own material and do so only as a leader, meant that his opportunities to play live and record would slowly thin out over his life and career.

For his time at Blue Note however, he had a strong asset in the respected label owner and producer Alfred Lion, who both admired and enjoyed the pianists sound, but also later became something of a friend to Hill. Thus despite a perceived lack of great commercial success this meant that Lion was always eager to record and release any of Hill’s sessions, and from as early as his Blue Note debut ‘Black Fire’ you can easily see why the famed producer was so drawn to the then young talent.

The music of Hill is highly original, taking in hard bop, but also rhythms and harmonies not usually heard in most jazz forms at the time, and his restless energy trying to achieve as much as possible, dipping into numerous styles, genres and techniques - all this and very definable melodies in every piece. The strong group too is not bound by any playing constraints of the label hard bop, with Joe Henderson, Richard Davis and Roy Haynes all contributing as much as they can, in tis very different take on the standard template of a saxophone-piano quartet.

Although a quartet outing, on occasion one of the players sits out. Most obviously Joe Henderson’s saxophone is absent from the highly percussive piano trio effort of ‘Subterfuge’, while on ‘McNeil Island’ a very different sound is generated by drummer Haynes staying silent. Perhaps the best thing here though is the brilliant ‘Pumpkin’, featuring one of the most distinctive basslines in modern jazz, while the title track can be best summed up as being a ‘sinister waltz’.

Complex, but not inaccessibly so, the combination of adventurous jazz solos with African sounding rhythms make ‘Black Fire’ an absolute winner, that together with the sheer talent of the four players make it a jazz classic. A great debut and one of the underrated Hill’s very best.

*****