Gavin Walker
Jul 21, 2007, 08:59 PM
Tonight's feature has special meaning because composer/pianist Andrew Hill was a fairly recent passing and his music is still very much a part of today's scenario.
Andrew, like his music, has always been a rather mysterious and elusive figure in modern Jazz, often implying rather than overtly stating his musical case. Occasionally this quality would enter into his personal life. As an example, Hill( nee Hille) told biographers that he was born in Haiti in 1937. The fact is, Andrew was born of Haitian parentage on June 30,1931 and died of lung cancer on April 20,2007 at a New york hospital. Andrew Hill played with many musicians of note in Chicago and learned his bebop well, playing with Gene Ammons, Johnny Griffin, Von Freeman, et al, and many visitors from New York. He played R & B and accompanied singers and it was Dinah Washington who took Andrew to New York where he soon caught the ear of many of the movers and shakers of the modern Jazz scene as well as the ear of his champion.....Blue Note Record's Alfred Lyon.
Lyon, twenty years earlier, had recorded a young man by the name of Thelonious Monk and gave Monk some of his earliest opportunities to document his music. Lyon did the same for Andrew Hill in the 1960's as he heard something very beautiful and new in Andrew's music. Even though Hill's records did not sell well (neither did Monk's) Lyon continued to record Andrew frequently and release some of his output. Now, just about all of Hill's Blue Note recordings are available in one package or another. Tonight's feature is a rather rare one as it was initially released under tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers' name in 1976 and called "Involution'. It disappeared soon after. Now under Andrew Hill's name this session is once more available and it's an important one as Sam Rivers is to Andrew Hill what Charlie Rouse is to Thelonious Monk.
All the compositions are by Hill and although they had no names when they were recorded on March 7, 1966.....Andrew named them later. Along with Rivers (on tenor only) and Hill is the wonderful free-thinking bassist Walter Booker (who went on to play with Sonny Rollins and Cannonball Adderley) and making his only Blue Note appearance is the loose and swinging drumming of J.C. Moses (who worked with Roland Kirk, Bud Powell, and Clifford Jordan). This album is a great quartet date that is full of fire and creativity and was actually meant for issue at the time it was done. The late Mr. Lyon loved this date but through a series of circumstances it got shelved. We have it here tonight with it's terse tune titles like "Hope", "Lust", "Pain" "Desire" and my favourite "Illusion" which is one way of summing up the sounds and persona of a man who never compromised his music and left a wonderful legacy for all of us to study and absorb. Andrew Hill was a true original and you'll find this out by checking out "Change" tonight.
Andrew, like his music, has always been a rather mysterious and elusive figure in modern Jazz, often implying rather than overtly stating his musical case. Occasionally this quality would enter into his personal life. As an example, Hill( nee Hille) told biographers that he was born in Haiti in 1937. The fact is, Andrew was born of Haitian parentage on June 30,1931 and died of lung cancer on April 20,2007 at a New york hospital. Andrew Hill played with many musicians of note in Chicago and learned his bebop well, playing with Gene Ammons, Johnny Griffin, Von Freeman, et al, and many visitors from New York. He played R & B and accompanied singers and it was Dinah Washington who took Andrew to New York where he soon caught the ear of many of the movers and shakers of the modern Jazz scene as well as the ear of his champion.....Blue Note Record's Alfred Lyon.
Lyon, twenty years earlier, had recorded a young man by the name of Thelonious Monk and gave Monk some of his earliest opportunities to document his music. Lyon did the same for Andrew Hill in the 1960's as he heard something very beautiful and new in Andrew's music. Even though Hill's records did not sell well (neither did Monk's) Lyon continued to record Andrew frequently and release some of his output. Now, just about all of Hill's Blue Note recordings are available in one package or another. Tonight's feature is a rather rare one as it was initially released under tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers' name in 1976 and called "Involution'. It disappeared soon after. Now under Andrew Hill's name this session is once more available and it's an important one as Sam Rivers is to Andrew Hill what Charlie Rouse is to Thelonious Monk.
All the compositions are by Hill and although they had no names when they were recorded on March 7, 1966.....Andrew named them later. Along with Rivers (on tenor only) and Hill is the wonderful free-thinking bassist Walter Booker (who went on to play with Sonny Rollins and Cannonball Adderley) and making his only Blue Note appearance is the loose and swinging drumming of J.C. Moses (who worked with Roland Kirk, Bud Powell, and Clifford Jordan). This album is a great quartet date that is full of fire and creativity and was actually meant for issue at the time it was done. The late Mr. Lyon loved this date but through a series of circumstances it got shelved. We have it here tonight with it's terse tune titles like "Hope", "Lust", "Pain" "Desire" and my favourite "Illusion" which is one way of summing up the sounds and persona of a man who never compromised his music and left a wonderful legacy for all of us to study and absorb. Andrew Hill was a true original and you'll find this out by checking out "Change" tonight.