Andrew Hill
Encyclopedia
Andrew Hill was an American
jazz
pianist
and composer
.
Hill is recognized as one of the most important innovators of jazz piano in the 1960s. His most-lauded work was recorded for Blue Note Records
, spanning nearly a decade and a dozen albums.
, Illinois
(not Port-au-Prince
, Haiti
, as was reported by many earlier jazz reference books) to William and Hattie Hille. He had a brother, Robert, whom was a singer and classical violin player. Hill took up the piano at the age of thirteen, and was encouraged by Earl Hines
. As a child, he attended the University of Chicago Experimental School. He was referred by jazz composer Bill Russo
to Paul Hindemith
, with whom he studied informally until 1952. While a teenager he performed in rhythm and blues bands and with touring jazz musicians, including Charlie Parker
and Miles Davis
. Hill recalls some of his experience as a youngster, during a 1964 interview with Leonard Feather
: "I started out in music as a boy soprano, singing and playing the accordion
, and tap dancing. I had a little act and made quite a few of the talent shows around town from 1943 until 1947. I won turkeys at two Thanksgiving parties at the Regal Theatre," parties sponsored by the newspaper Chicago Defender
, which Hill coincidentally used to sell on the streets.
In 1950, he learned his first blues changes on the piano from the saxophonist Pat Patrick and in 1953, he played his first professional job as a musician, with Paul Williams
' band. "At that time", he recalls, "I was playing baritone sax as well as piano." During the next few years, the piano gigs brought him into contact with a passel of musicians, some of whom became relevant influences: Joe Segal and Barry Harris
, amongst others. In 1961, after travelling as an accompanist for Dinah Washington
, the young pianist settled in New York City
where he worked for Johnny Hartman
and Al Hibbler
, then briefly moved to Los Angeles County where he worked with Roland Kirk's quartet and at the invaluable jazz club Lighthouse Café
, in Hermosa Beach. It was then that he met his bride-to-be, Laverne Gillette, at the time an organist at the Red Carpet. They married in 1963 and moved to New York. She passed following a long illness in California where they had moved.
Hill first recorded as a sideman in 1954, but his reputation was made by his Blue Note
recordings as leader from 1963 to 1970, which featured several other important post-bop
musicians including Joe Chambers
, Richard Davis, Eric Dolphy
, Bobby Hutcherson
, Joe Henderson
, Freddie Hubbard
, Elvin Jones
, Woody Shaw
, and Tony Williams, as well as John Gilmore
. Hill also played on albums by Henderson, Hutcherson, and Hank Mobley
. His distinctive compositions accounted for three of the five pieces on Bobby Hutcherson's classic Dialogue
album.
Hill rarely worked as a sideman after the 1960s, preferring to play his own compositions. This may have limited his public exposure. He obtained a doctorate in music from Colgate University
of Hamilton
and served as the university's composer in residence from 1970 to 1972. He later taught in California and was an associate professor on a tenure track at Portland State University
. During his time at PSU, he established a Summer Jazz Intensive program in addition to performing, conducting workshops and attending residencies at other universities such as Wesleyan University
, University of Michigan
, University of Toronto
, Harvard University
and Bennington College
. He married dancer/educator Joanne Robinson Hill in Portland in 1992. They moved to New York City
in 1995. His final public performance was on March 29, 2007 at Trinity Church
in New York City. Andrew Hill suffered from lung cancer
during the last years of his life. He died at his home in Jersey City
.
In May 2007, he became the first person to receive a posthumous honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music
.
, Bud Powell
and Art Tatum
. "Monk's like Ravel and Debussy to me, in that he put a lot of personality into his playing[...]it's the personality of music which makes it, finally" said the pianist in a 1963 interview with A. B. Spellman
. Powell was an even greater influence, but Hill thought that his music was a dead end: "If you stay with Bud too much, you'll always sound like him, even if you're doing something he never did." Ultimately, Hill referred to Tatum as the epitome of "all modern piano playing".
Hill created a unique idiom that utilized chromatic, modal, and occasionally "free" improvisation. Although usually categorized as "avant-garde", Hill's music bears little resemblance to the free atonality and extended improvisations of Cecil Taylor and others. Like his contemporaries Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, and Eric Dolphy, Hill was considered to be a cusp figure: too "out" to be "in," but too "in" to be "out." His earlier work, particularly the album Point of Departure, featuring fellow innovator Eric Dolphy, exhibits Hill's desire to advance while remaining grounded in the traditions of his predecessors. Throughout, his skill as both composer and leader can be sensed as the band ventures into unknown territory while still remaining precise and controlled. Hill's compositions sometimes have a contemplative mood. He was known for the rhythmic and harmonic complexity of his performances and compositions.
As a pianist, Hill's style was marked by extreme chromaticism, complex, dense chords, flowing, legato phrasing, and frequent rubato. He would often play against the rhythmic pulse, or move into different time signatures.
His album Dusk was selected as the best album of 2001 by both Down Beat
and JazzTimes
; and in 2003, Hill received the Jazzpar Prize
. Hill's earlier work also received renewed attention as a result of the belated release of several unissued sessions made in the 1960s for Blue Note, notably the ambitious large-group date Passing Ships
.
As a consequence of his renewed prominence, a new Blue Note album titled Time Lines
was released on February 21, 2006.
East Wind Records
Soul Note
SteepleChase Records
Freedom Records
Palmetto Records
Other labels
With Rahsaan Roland Kirk
With Jimmy Woods
With Hank Mobley
With Joe Henderson
With Bobby Hutcherson
With Russel Baba
With Reggie Workman
With Greg Osby
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
Hill is recognized as one of the most important innovators of jazz piano in the 1960s. His most-lauded work was recorded for Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
, spanning nearly a decade and a dozen albums.
Life and career
Andrew Hill was born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
(not Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
, Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, as was reported by many earlier jazz reference books) to William and Hattie Hille. He had a brother, Robert, whom was a singer and classical violin player. Hill took up the piano at the age of thirteen, and was encouraged by Earl Hines
Earl Hines
Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...
. As a child, he attended the University of Chicago Experimental School. He was referred by jazz composer Bill Russo
William Russo (musician)
William Russo, better known as Bill Russo , was an American jazz musician. He is considered one of the greatest jazz composers and arrangers.-History:...
to Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
, with whom he studied informally until 1952. While a teenager he performed in rhythm and blues bands and with touring jazz musicians, including Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
and Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
. Hill recalls some of his experience as a youngster, during a 1964 interview with Leonard Feather
Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.-Biography:...
: "I started out in music as a boy soprano, singing and playing the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, and tap dancing. I had a little act and made quite a few of the talent shows around town from 1943 until 1947. I won turkeys at two Thanksgiving parties at the Regal Theatre," parties sponsored by the newspaper Chicago Defender
Chicago Defender
The Chicago Defender is a Chicago based newspaper founded in 1905 by an African American for primarily African American readers.In just three years from 1919–1922 the Defender also attracted the writing talents of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks....
, which Hill coincidentally used to sell on the streets.
In 1950, he learned his first blues changes on the piano from the saxophonist Pat Patrick and in 1953, he played his first professional job as a musician, with Paul Williams
Paul Williams (saxophonist)
Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams was an American blues and rhythm and blues saxophonist and songwriter. In his Honkers and Shouters, Arnold Shaw credits Williams as one of the first to employ the honking tenor sax solo that became the hallmark of rhythm and blues and rock and roll in the 1950s and...
' band. "At that time", he recalls, "I was playing baritone sax as well as piano." During the next few years, the piano gigs brought him into contact with a passel of musicians, some of whom became relevant influences: Joe Segal and Barry Harris
Barry Harris
Barry Doyle Harris is an American bebop jazz pianist and educator.-Biography:Harris left Detroit for New York City in 1960...
, amongst others. In 1961, after travelling as an accompanist for Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
, the young pianist settled in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he worked for Johnny Hartman
Johnny Hartman
John Maurice Hartman was an American bass jazz singer who specialized in ballads and earned critical acclaim, though he was never widely known. He recorded a well-known collaboration with the saxophonist John Coltrane in 1963 called John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, and was briefly a member of...
and Al Hibbler
Al Hibbler
Albert George "Al" Hibbler was an American baritone vocalist, who sang with Duke Ellington's orchestra before having several pop hits as a solo artist. Some of his singing is classified as rhythm and blues, but he is best classified as a bridge between R&B and traditional pop music...
, then briefly moved to Los Angeles County where he worked with Roland Kirk's quartet and at the invaluable jazz club Lighthouse Café
Lighthouse Café
The Lighthouse Café is a nightclub located at 30 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, California. It has been active as a jazz showcase since 1949 and, under the name "The Lighthouse", was one of the central West Coast jazz clubs from the 1950s through the late 1970s....
, in Hermosa Beach. It was then that he met his bride-to-be, Laverne Gillette, at the time an organist at the Red Carpet. They married in 1963 and moved to New York. She passed following a long illness in California where they had moved.
Hill first recorded as a sideman in 1954, but his reputation was made by his Blue Note
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
recordings as leader from 1963 to 1970, which featured several other important post-bop
Post-bop
Post-bop is a term for a form of small-combo jazz music that evolved in the early-to-mid sixties. The genre's origins lie in seminal work by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
musicians including Joe Chambers
Joe Chambers
Joe Chambers is an American jazz drummer, pianist, vibraphonist and composer. He attended the Philadelphia Conservatory for one year. In the 1960s and 70s Chambers gigged with many high-profile artists such as Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Lou Donaldson, Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Giuffre...
, Richard Davis, Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...
, Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
, Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Elvin Jones
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....
, Woody Shaw
Woody Shaw
Woody Shaw was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer and band leader, often referred to as the "last innovator" in the jazz trumpet lineage...
, and Tony Williams, as well as John Gilmore
John Gilmore (musician)
John Gilmore was an American jazz tenor saxophone player best-known for his long tenure as a member of Sun Ra's Arkestra...
. Hill also played on albums by Henderson, Hutcherson, and Hank Mobley
Hank Mobley
Henry Mobley was an American hard bop and soul jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", a metaphor used to describe his tone that was neither as aggressive as John Coltrane nor as mellow as Stan Getz...
. His distinctive compositions accounted for three of the five pieces on Bobby Hutcherson's classic Dialogue
Dialogue (Bobby Hutcherson)
Dialogue is an album by jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, released on the Blue Note label in 1965. This was Hutcherson's first LP released as bandleader , following work with Eric Dolphy...
album.
Hill rarely worked as a sideman after the 1960s, preferring to play his own compositions. This may have limited his public exposure. He obtained a doctorate in music from Colgate University
Colgate University
Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York, USA. The school was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary and later became non-denominational. It is named for the Colgate family who greatly contributed to the university's endowment in the 19th century.Colgate has 52...
of Hamilton
Hamilton (village), New York
The Village of Hamilton is a village located within the town of Hamilton in Madison County, New York, USA.-Geography and climate:The village, located at , lies in the Chenango Valley, just south of the headwaters of the Chenango River. The village is approximately southeast of Syracuse and ...
and served as the university's composer in residence from 1970 to 1972. He later taught in California and was an associate professor on a tenure track at Portland State University
Portland State University
Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in...
. During his time at PSU, he established a Summer Jazz Intensive program in addition to performing, conducting workshops and attending residencies at other universities such as Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
, University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and Bennington College
Bennington College
Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...
. He married dancer/educator Joanne Robinson Hill in Portland in 1992. They moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1995. His final public performance was on March 29, 2007 at Trinity Church
Trinity Church, New York
Trinity Church at 79 Broadway, Lower Manhattan, is a historic, active parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York...
in New York City. Andrew Hill suffered from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
during the last years of his life. He died at his home in Jersey City
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...
.
In May 2007, he became the first person to receive a posthumous honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
.
Style
Hill's main influences were pianists Thelonious MonkThelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
, Bud Powell
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...
and Art Tatum
Art Tatum
Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...
. "Monk's like Ravel and Debussy to me, in that he put a lot of personality into his playing[...]it's the personality of music which makes it, finally" said the pianist in a 1963 interview with A. B. Spellman
A. B. Spellman
A. B. Spellman , is an African-American poet, music critic, music historian, arts administrator, and author. He first garnered attention for his 1964 book of poems entitled The Beautiful Days...
. Powell was an even greater influence, but Hill thought that his music was a dead end: "If you stay with Bud too much, you'll always sound like him, even if you're doing something he never did." Ultimately, Hill referred to Tatum as the epitome of "all modern piano playing".
Hill created a unique idiom that utilized chromatic, modal, and occasionally "free" improvisation. Although usually categorized as "avant-garde", Hill's music bears little resemblance to the free atonality and extended improvisations of Cecil Taylor and others. Like his contemporaries Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, and Eric Dolphy, Hill was considered to be a cusp figure: too "out" to be "in," but too "in" to be "out." His earlier work, particularly the album Point of Departure, featuring fellow innovator Eric Dolphy, exhibits Hill's desire to advance while remaining grounded in the traditions of his predecessors. Throughout, his skill as both composer and leader can be sensed as the band ventures into unknown territory while still remaining precise and controlled. Hill's compositions sometimes have a contemplative mood. He was known for the rhythmic and harmonic complexity of his performances and compositions.
As a pianist, Hill's style was marked by extreme chromaticism, complex, dense chords, flowing, legato phrasing, and frequent rubato. He would often play against the rhythmic pulse, or move into different time signatures.
His album Dusk was selected as the best album of 2001 by both Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
and JazzTimes
JazzTimes
JazzTimes is a magazine that dates back to Radio Free Jazz, a publication founded in 1970 by Ira Sabin when he was operating a record store in Washington, DC. It was originally a newsletter designed to update shoppers on the latest jazz releases and provide jazz radio programmers with a means of...
; and in 2003, Hill received the Jazzpar Prize
Jazzpar Prize
The Jazzpar Prize was an annual Danish prize within jazz founded by Arnvid Meyer. The winner was chosen from five nominees, among internationally recognized performers of jazz. The award used to be 200,000 Danish crowns and a bronze statue by Jørgen Haugen Sørensen...
. Hill's earlier work also received renewed attention as a result of the belated release of several unissued sessions made in the 1960s for Blue Note, notably the ambitious large-group date Passing Ships
Passing Ships
Passing Ships is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill featuring performances recorded in 1969 but not released on the Blue Note label until 2003. The album features Hill with a large horn section performing seven original compositions.-Reception:...
.
As a consequence of his renewed prominence, a new Blue Note album titled Time Lines
Time Lines
Time Lines is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 2005 and released on the Blue Note label in 2006. The album features Hill's final studio recordings.-Reception:...
was released on February 21, 2006.
As leader
lue Note Records]- 1963: Black FireBlack Fire (album)Black Fire is an album by jazz pianist and composer Andrew Hill, released on the Blue Note label in 1964. It was Hill's debut for the label. Initially, Philly Joe Jones was scheduled to play on the album, but was replaced by Roy Haynes after scheduling issues...
- 1963: SmokestackSmokestack (album)Smoke Stack is a studio album by jazz pianist Andrew Hill, recorded in 1963 and released in 1966 on the Blue Note Records label. It was his second recording as leader on the record label. "Ode to Von" id dedicated to saxophonist Von Freeman, whilst "Verne" is dedicated to Hill's first wife, Laverne...
- 1964: Judgment!Judgment!Judgment! is a 1964 studio album by jazz pianist Andrew Hill released on the Blue Note Records label. Composed of a rhythm section and vibraphone - played by Bobby Hutcherson - Hill weaves his music around a complex harmonic structure.-The pieces:...
- 1964: Point of Departure
- 1964: Andrew!!!Andrew!!!Andrew!!! is a studio album by jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded for Blue Note Records in 1964, which was first released in April 1968, and subsequently released on CD in 2005 with two alternate takes.- Track listing :# "The Griots" - 6:04...
- 1965: PaxPax (album)Pax is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill featuring performances recorded in 1965 but not released on the Blue Note label until 1975 as part of a compilation album One for One...
(issued 2006) - 1965: Compulsion!!!!!Compulsion (album)Compulsion!!!!! is a jazz album by pianist Andrew Hill. It was originally released in 1966 under the Blue Note Label as BST 84217. It was remastered by Rudy Van Gelder in 2006.- Background and album concept :...
- 1966: ChangeChange (Andrew Hill album)Change is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill featuring performances recorded and scheduled for release in 1966 on the Blue Note label...
(issued 2007) - 1968: Grass Roots
- 1968: Dance with DeathDance with DeathDance with Death is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill featuring performances recorded in 1968 but not released on the Blue Note label until 1980...
(issued 1980) - 1969: Lift Every VoiceLift Every Voice (Andrew Hill album)Lift Every Voice is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill featuring performances recorded in 1969 and released on the Blue Note label in 1970. The original album features Hill with a large choir performing five original compositions and the 2001 CD reissue added six additional compositions...
- 1969: Passing ShipsPassing ShipsPassing Ships is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill featuring performances recorded in 1969 but not released on the Blue Note label until 2003. The album features Hill with a large horn section performing seven original compositions.-Reception:...
(issued 2003) - 1965-70: One for One (issued 1975)
- 1989: Eternal SpiritEternal SpiritEternal Spirit is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1989 and released on the Blue Note label. The album features six of Hill's original compositions performed by his quintet with three alternate takes added to the CD release as bonus tracks.-Reception:The Allmusic review by...
- 1990: But Not FarewellBut Not FarewellBut Not Farewell is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1990 and released on the Blue Note label in 1991. The album features seven of Hill's original compositions with four performed by his quintet, one duet with Greg Osby, and two solo piano pieces...
- 2006: Time LinesTime LinesTime Lines is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 2005 and released on the Blue Note label in 2006. The album features Hill's final studio recordings.-Reception:...
East Wind Records
East Wind Records
East Wind was a Japanese jazz record label.Among their most prominent artists were "The Great Jazz Trio", a group that has included Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, Hank Jones, Richard Davis, Ron Carter.-Discography:-External links:**...
- 1975: Blue BlackBlue Black (album)Blue Black is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1975 and released on the Japanese East Wind label. The album features five of Hill's original compositions performed by a quartet.-Reception:...
- 1975: HommageHommage (album)Hommage is a solo album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1975 and originally released on the Japanese East Wind label. The album features six of Hill's original compositions and one interpretation of a Duke Ellington tune.-Reception:...
- 1976: NefertitiNefertiti (Andrew Hill album)Nefertiti is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1975 and originally released on the Japanese East Wind label. The album features six of Hill's original compositions performed by a trio.-Reception:...
Soul Note
- 1980: Strange SerenadeStrange SerenadeStrange Serenade is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1980 and released on the Italian Soul Note label. The album features three of Hill's original compositions and one written by Laverne Hill performed by a trio.-Reception:...
- 1980: Faces of HopeFaces of HopeFaces of Hope is a solo album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1980 and released on the Italian Soul Note label. The album features three of Hill's original compositions and one interpretation of a Lee Morgan tune.-Reception:...
- 1986: ShadesShades (Andrew Hill album)Shades is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1986 and released on the Italian Soul Note label in 1988. The album features six of Hill's original compositions, four performed by a quartet and two by a trio.-Reception:...
- 1986: Verona RagVerona RagVerona Rag is a solo album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1986 and released on the Italian Soul Note label in 1987. The album features three of Hill's original compositions and two jazz standards.-Reception:...
SteepleChase Records
SteepleChase Records
SteepleChase Records is a jazz record label based in Copenhagen, Denmark. SteepleChase was founded in 1972 by Nils Winther, who was a student at Copenhagen University at the time...
- 1974: InvitationInvitation (Andrew Hill album)Invitation is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1974 and released on the Danish SteepleChase label. The album features five of Hill's original compositions and one jazz standard performed by a trio...
- 1975: Divine RevelationDivine Revelation (album)Divine Revelation is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1975 and released on the Danish SteepleChase label. The album features four of Hill's original compositions performed by a quartet and one jazz standard performed solo...
Freedom Records
Freedom Records
Freedom Records was a jazz record label linked with the producer Alan Bates, as with his Black Lion Records.Individual recordings were distributed via Polydor Records and Transatlantic Records during the early 1970s before the company was bought by Arista Records.-Discography:*1000 Albert Ayler &...
- 1975: SpiralSpiral (Andrew Hill album)Spiral is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in late 1974 and ealy 1975 and released on the Freedom label. The album features six of Hill's original compositions and one interpretation of a jazz standard performed by a quartet and quintet...
- 1975: Live at MontreuxLive at Montreux (Andrew Hill album)Live at Montreux is a live album of a solo performance by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1975 and released on the Freedom label...
Palmetto Records
Palmetto Records
Palmetto Records is an independent American jazz record label founded in 1990 by Matt Balitsaris. -Artists:*Ben Allison*Lili Anel*Matt Wilson*Fred Hersch*Ted Nash*Bill Mays*Larry Goldings*David Berkman*Dr...
- 1999: DuskDusk (Andrew Hill album)Dusk is a studio album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1999 and released on the Palmetto label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by David R...
- 2002: A Beautiful DayA Beautiful DayA Beautiful Day is a live album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 2002 at Birdland in New York City and released on the Palmetto label.-Reception:...
Other labels
- 1959: So In LoveSo In Love (album)So In Love is a studio album by jazz pianist Andrew Hill released by Warwick Records in 1960.-Track listing:#So In Love#Chiconga#Body and Soul#Old Devil Moon#Spring Is Here#Penthouse Party#That's All-Personnel:*Andrew Hill - piano...
(Warwick) - 1979: From California with LoveFrom California with LoveFrom California with Love is a solo album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1978 and released on the Artists House label. The album features two of Hill's original compositions...
(Artists HouseArtists House-Discography:...
) - 1993: Dreams Come TrueDreams Come True (Andrew Hill & Chico Hamilton album)Dreams Come True is an album of duets by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill and drummer Chico Hamilton recorded in 1993 but not released on the Joyous Shout! label until 2008. The album features four of Hill's original compositions, two by Hamilton and two covers. -Reception:The Time Out New York...
(Joyous Shout!) with Chico HamiltonChico HamiltonChico Hamilton , is an American jazz drummer and bandleader.-Early life through 1960s:Hamilton was born in Los Angeles, California. He had a fast-track musical education in a band with Charles Mingus, Illinois Jacquet, Ernie Royal, Dexter Gordon, Buddy Collette and Jack Kelso... - 1998: Les TrinitairesLes TrinitairesLes Trinitaires is a live album of a solo performance by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in 1998 in Metz, France and released on the Jazz Friends label. The album features five of Hill's original compositions with one alternate take, two jazz standards, and two compositions by Hill's...
(Jazzfriends) - 2003: The Day the World Stood StillThe Day the World Stood StillThe Day the World Stood Still is a live album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill recorded in Sweden and Denmark in 2003 and released on the Danish Stunt label...
(Stunt) with Jazzpar Octet + 1
As sideman
With Walt DickersonWalt Dickerson
Walter Roland Dickerson was an American jazz vibraphone player, most associated with post-bop....
- To My Queen (PrestigePrestige RecordsPrestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
, 1962)
With Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...
- DominoDomino (Rahsaan Roland Kirk album)Domino is an album by Roland Kirk recorded and released in 1962. The follow-up to We Free Kings, his 1961 breakthrough as a bandleader, it found him increasingly reliant on standards and cover versions. It was reissued in 2000 on Verve with bonus tracks featuring sessions with Herbie Hancock...
(1962)
With Jimmy Woods
Jimmy Woods
Jimmy Woods is an American jazz alto saxophonist.Woods played with the R&B band of Homer Carter in 1951, and served in the Air Force from 1952 to 1956. He played with Roy Milton after his discharge, and was with Horace Tapscott in 1960 and Joe Gordon in 1961...
- Conflict (ContemporaryContemporary RecordsContemporary Records was a jazz record label founded by Lester Koenig in 1951 in Los Angeles. Contemporary was known for seminal recordings embodying the West Coast sound, but also released recordings based in New York...
, 1963)
With Hank Mobley
Hank Mobley
Henry Mobley was an American hard bop and soul jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", a metaphor used to describe his tone that was neither as aggressive as John Coltrane nor as mellow as Stan Getz...
- No Room for SquaresNo Room for Squares- Track listing :# "Three Way Split" – 7:49# "Carolyn" – 5:30# "Up a Step" – 8:31# "No Room for Squares" – 6:57# "Me 'N You" – 7:17# "Old World Imports" – 6:08# "Carolyn" [alternate take] – 5:35 Bonus track on CD...
(1963)
With Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.-Early life:From a very large family with five sisters and nine...
- Our ThingOur Thing (album)Our Thing is the second release by American jazz tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson on Blue Note. It features performances by Henderson, Kenny Dorham, Andrew Hill, Pete La Roca and Eddie Khan of originals by Henderson and Dorham...
(1963)
With Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
- Dialogue (1965)
With Russel Baba
- Earth Prayer (1992)
With Reggie Workman
Reggie Workman
Reginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....
- Summit Conference (1994)
With Greg Osby
Greg Osby
Greg Osby is an American jazz saxophonist who plays mainly in the free jazz, free funk and M-Base idioms.-Biography:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Osby studied at Howard University, where he majored in Jazz Studies, and then at the Berklee College of Music, with Andy McGhee...
- The Invisible Hand (Blue Note, 2000)
External links
- Official Andrew Hill Website
- Andrew Hill @ Boosey & Hawkes
- Andrew Hill Discography at www.JazzDiscography.com
- Andrew Hill discography / sessionography
- Washington Post obituary
- Obituary and Biography by Garrick Feldman
- RBMA Radio On Demand - Sound Obsession - Volume 10 - Andrew Hill Tribute - Kirk Degiorgio (The Beauty Room, As One)