Signing to Blue Note Records in 1963, Hill began one of the most consistently high-quality and forward-thinking recording streaks in jazz history with the November sessions that produced his album Black Fire. The streak continued the next month with Smoke Stack, then into the new year with Judgment!, Point of Departure, and Andrew!!!. On these records, Hill not only began broadening the harmonic canvas of jazz, but found his niche with the most advanced players of the era - peaking with Point of Departure, on which he led an ensemble featuring Joe Henderson, Eric Dolphy, Kenny Dorham, Richard Davis, and Tony Williams. If Horace Silver had represented Blue Note's hard-bop sound in the 1950s, Andrew Hill embodied the progressive Blue Note of the '60s, lending a vision of harmonically and melodically complex musical palettes to the label that now epitomizes jazz recording.
Unfortunately, Hill's tremendous contributions to jazz's artistic development in the 1960s were largely overlooked in the jazz universe (even by the many who bought Point of Departure). Undaunted, he built a cult following of jazzheads and critics, continued an exhaustive and exhausting run of performing and recording, and proceeded to write a new harmonic language and a new conception of time. His influence wasn't the explosive one of Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, or Miles Davis; rather, it was a slow seepage, as like-minded pianists (and other musicians) heard his unique stylistic approach, incorporated it into their own, then let other musicians do the same to them in a long chain of unknowing followers. Among his musical followers and sympathizers were Mal Waldron, Herbie Hancock, Muhal Richard Abrams, Don Pullen, Danilo Perez, and Jason Moran.
It took a new century for the bulk of the jazz world to finally catch onto, and marvel at, Hill's innovations; in 2001, when he released Dusk (Palmetto), he was raised up as though he were the newest and hippest sensation, not a 50-year journeyman and musical beacon. It won Album of the year in both major jazz publications, Down Beat and JazzTimes. Two years later, Hill won the Jazzpar, the Danish award that is perhaps the most selective and prestigious in the international jazz community.
By 2006, after touring America and the world and returning to Blue Note Records for the release of the Time Lines album, he had four times been named by the Jazz Journalists Association as Jazz Composer of the Year; been one of the earliest recipients of a Doris Duke Foundation Award for Jazz Composers; won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation of America; and had Time Lines, his last recording, once again named Jazz Album of the Year by Down Beat, the New York Times, and numerous other publications and critics (including this writer).
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Article comments
1 - Pico
Wow, sad news. He finally started getting his due in recent years, but perhaps still not enough. His legacy will continue to grow in the coming years, though, I feel pretty certain of that.
Hill's works has sometimes been so dense I had a hard time absorbing it, but I could tell that it was something much more sophisticated than what could easily be understood. Recently I finally had the occasion to listen to Compulsion after being familiar with (and reviewing) Nels Cline's version of the title song and found it to be very advanced and out of the box, like much of his Blue Noters. It's not surprising that a guy like Cline admires Hill's music.
Very nice tribute, Michael.
2 - Fred Stark
I am very sad this great musician/composer has
passed away. I first listened to his music in the late '70s with the reissues from 1970. I have been
a teacher so I can appreciate the value of mentoring
the students. I am a person with a physical disability as Andrew Hill was, and I know the challenges he faced dealing with those issues. I am
grateful I was able to see him in June 2006 once again.
3 - ken
A great appreciation of Hill and far more factual and insightful than the ones circulating on the AP Wire. Hill was a great pianist and composer.
4 - Leslie Bohn
Oh, yes, Mr. West, this was well-written and shows a real in-depth knowledge of the music. Your essay gets across the idea that AH's approach to the music was thoughtful and experimental and intellectual " serious.
That amazing flurry of five or six Blue Note albums from late 63 and 64 is just brimming with ideas, as you eloquently say. All are, as they say, "highly recommended." Your favorite seems to be Point of Departure, which only edges out IMHO Black Fire by a nose. Almost anything with Dolphy in that period is a treasure, too.
His recent comeback was welcome; I saw him a couple years ago at Lincoln Center and he was very very sharp, picking out fast ripping runs that cut through the big room.
What are your musical thoughts about the big comeback allbum Dusk, Mr. West and his late playing?
5 - Michael J. West
Thanks for your comments, Ken and Leslie!
Leslie, I actually prefer Black Fire myself; I've had "Subterfuge" in my head every day since I wrote the article. I focus on Point of Departure in the article because it's his best-known. Also, it features the most "all-star" lineup of his career.
Dusk is a hard album to argue with, too. It felt like both a summation of his classic '60s Blue Note work in a lot of places, but in others as though it was thrusting forward into the future (especially "15/8"). And the unaccompanied piano stuff? Beautiful. It was the best he'd done in years...
...until Time Lines came out last year. That was a marvel - the songs were so beautiful, but the arrangements and the orchestrations were so--I guess "pointillistic" is the word.
That actually might be a good way to look at his late work, Leslie, since you ask - though he'd gained such mastery over that melodic/harmonic rainbow on piano and in composition that he turned his attention to innovating the arrangements.
6 - Maxim
I've discovered music by Andrew Hill quite recently but almost instantly fell in love with it. Since then i've absorbed his every work I could find. "Black fire" was the first acquaintance but then there have been "Passing ships", "Andrew!!!", "Judgment", "Dance with death" and "Dusk". Some songs like "Passing ships" or "Pumpkin" from Black Fire make my eyes watery )) I know and can easily explain what makes Andrew absolutely unique even among the great. It is his superb melodic talant + distinctive piano style + ever fresh approach to arrangement. His music perfectly balances melody and improvisation without becoming cheezy or too abstract.
I greatly regret his passing. Which is particularly sad news now as i was looking for Mr. Hill's contact info hoping to invite him to give a performance in my country.