Jazz

Andrew Hill - Black Fire (1963)

2014-01-30T17:03:59Z

Andrew Hill - Black Fire (1963)


1. Pumpkin [5:26]
2. Subterfuge [8:06]
3. Black Fire [6:58]
4. Cantarnos [5:44]
5. Tired Trade [5:53]
6. Mcneil Island [3:00]
7. Land Of Nod [5:50]
8. Pumpkin (Alternate Take) [5:19]
9. Black Fire (Alternate Take) [5:45]

Andrew Hill - piano
Joe Henderson - tenor sax
Richard Davis - bass
Roy Haynes – drums

Black Fire, Andrew Hill's debut record for Blue Note, was an impressive statement of purpose that retains much of its power decades after its initial release. Hill's music is quite original, building from a hard bop foundation and moving into uncharted harmonic and rhythmic territory. His compositions and technique take chances; he often sounds restless, searching relentlessly for provocative voicings, rhythms, and phrases. Black Fire borrows from the avant-garde, but it's not part of it -- the structures remain quite similar to bop, and there are distinct melodies. Nevertheless, Hill and his band -- comprised of tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Roy Haynes -- are not content with the limitations of hard bop. Much of the music is informed by implied Afro-Cuban rhythms and modal harmonics, resulting in continually challenging and very rewarding music. Hill's complex chording is thoroughly impressive, and Henderson's bold solos are more adventurous than his previous bop outings would have suggested. Their expertise, along with the nimble, unpredictable rhythm section, help make Black Fire a modern jazz classic. --- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

download: uploaded yandex anonfiles 4shared solidfiles mediafire mega filecloudio nornar

back

Andrew Hill - Point of Departure (1965/2003)

2017-10-27T11:52:35Z

Andrew Hill - Point of Departure (1965/2003)


1. Refuge
2. New Monastery
3. Spectrum
4. Flight 19
5. Dedication
6. New Monastery (alt. take)
7. Flight 19 (alt. take)
8. Dedication (alt. take)

Andrew Hill - piano
Kenny Dorham - trumpet
Eric Dolphy - alto saxophone, flute, bass clarinet
Joe Henderson - tenor saxophone
Richard Davis - bass
Tony Williams – drums

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill is perhaps known more for this date than any other in his catalogue -- 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. Hill's solo is first and it cooks along in the upper middle register, almost all right hand ministrations, creating with his left a virtual counterpoint for Davis and a skittering wash of notes for Williams. The horn solos in are all from the hard bop book, but Dolphy cuts his close to the bone with an edgy tone. "New Monastery," which some mistake for an avant-garde tune, is actually a rewrite of bop minimalism extended by a diminished minor mode and an intervallic sequence that, while clipped, moves very quickly. Dorham solos to connect the dots of the knotty frontline melody and, in his wake, leaves the space open for Dolphy, who blows edgy, blue, and true into the center, as Hill jumps to create a maelstrom by vamping with augmented and suspended chords. Hill chills it out with gorgeous legato phrasing and a left-hand ostinato that cuts through the murk in the harmony. When Henderson takes his break, he just glides into the chromatically elegant space created by Hill, and it's suddenly a new tune. This disc is full of moments like this. In Hill's compositional world, everything is up for grabs. It just has to be taken a piece at a time, and not by leaving your fingerprints all over everything. In "Dedication," where he takes the piano solo further out melodically than on the rest of the album combined, he does so gradually. You cannot remember his starting point, only that there has been a transformation. This is a stellar date, essential for any representative jazz collection, and a record that, in the 21st century, still points the way to the future for jazz. ---Thom Jurek, AllMusic Review

download (mp3 @320 kbs):

yandex mediafire uloz.to mega 4shared cloudmailru gett

back

Andrew Hill - Time Lines (2006)

2011-08-25T18:29:55Z

Andrew Hill - Time Lines (2006)


1 Malachi
2 Time Lines		play
3 Ry Round 1
4 For Emilio
5 Whitsuntide
6 Smooth			play
7 Ry Round 2
8 Malachi [Solo Piano Version]

Personnel:
Andrew Hill - piano
Greg Tardy - tenor sax, clarinet, bass claninet
Charles Tolliver - trumpet
John Herbert - bass
Eric McPherson – drums

Time Lines marks the return to Blue Note of one of the label's great originals, with Hill retaining the edgy intensity that marked such '60s masterpieces as Black Fire and Judgment. As pianist, composer, and bandleader, Hill has a special talent for creating structural tensions that stimulate fresh improvisations. You hear it in the title track as saxophonist Greg Tardy and trumpeter Charles Tolliver (another veteran of the 1960s) weave through Hill's minefield of compound rhythms and dissonant chords to make their own powerful statements. Tardy's mastery of clarinet and bass clarinet adds to Hill's rich palette of instrumental colors, while bassist John Hebert and drummer Eric McPherson contribute to the dynamic flow of polyrhythms. Whether it's the joyous playfulness of "Smooth," the taut and spiky "Ry Round 1," or the welling emotional depths of the solo piano version of "Malachi," every track bears the stamp of Hill's creativity and commitment. --Stuart Broomer

Sadly, art is often not recognized until the artist is gone. That certainly appeared like it was going to be the fate for pianist Andrew Hill. Despite releasing a spate of innovative records for Blue Note in the 1960s, he seemed perennially overshadowed by the artists he worked with, including vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson and saxophonist Joe Henderson. Thankfully, there's been a concerted effort in recent years to reissue his Blue Note oeuvre, as well as dig out some archival gold that has remained unreleased for over three decades. And with Hill's two fine late-1990s Palmetto releases, it seems that he's finally making it onto the radar of a larger modern audience.

And not a moment too soon—Hill was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. On the strength of Time Lines, his return to Blue Note after a sixteen-year absence, Hill is making some of the best music of his career. But with his medical condition, one wonders how much longer he has left, one factor that motivated Left Coast guitarist Nels Cline to record Tribute to Andrew Hill, which will be released later this year. In some ways Time Lines suggests how ECM might have evolved had it been based in America rather than Europe. There are clear nods to tradition on tracks like "Smooth, with its fast swing. Woodwind multi-instrumentalist Greg Tardy and trumpeter Charles Tolliver, another undervalued performer who appeared on some of Hill's 1960s Blue Note albums, dance around each other like agile boxers while Hill, bassist John Hebert and drummer Eric McPherson stretch time every which way. But both the ensemble and solo piano versions of "Malachi —dedicated to the late bassist Malachi Favors Maghostut, with whom Hill collaborated in the late 1950s—are imbued with an abstract impressionism, even the hint of icy cool that has been one of ECM's characteristics since its inception.

But, like ECM, Hill's "in the moment" music transcends easy categorization. Offering some of the freest sounding playing of his career, Time Lines is nevertheless anything but unstructured. It's just that Hill's themes and harmonic foundations are often so complex that it's often a challenge to easily pick them apart. The 11/8 title tune, with McPherson's liberated sense of time—a curious blend of styles reminiscent of Jack DeJohnette and Jon Christensen—cleverly obscures any obvious downbeat. Hill's own playing remains oblique—blocky, and yet with an abstruse melodic sensibility all its own. That seems more acceptable now, 45 years down the line. Despite the unquestionable modernity of Time Lines, it's also a thoroughly logical evolution from Hill's earliest work. Sometimes it's not a matter of the artist finding the right chord to resonate with his audience, but the audience finally catching up with his work. It's gratifying indeed that Hill's art is finally finding a larger audience while he's still alive. Hopefully Time Lines won't be Hill's last recording; but if it is, it's as fine a way to depart as one could hope for. ----John Kelman

download: uploaded yandex 4shared mediafire solidfiles mega zalivalka filecloudio anonfiles oboom

back