Judgment! is a 1964 studio album by jazz pianist Andrew Hill

Andrew Hill

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...

 released on the 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...

 label. Composed of a rhythm section

Rhythm section

A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...

 and vibraphone

Vibraphone

The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....

 - played by 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...

 - Hill weaves his music around a complex harmonic structure.

The pieces

The first track, "Siete Ocho", meaning "Seven Eight", is an intriguing 7/8 piece with a main theme about 20 measures long. "Flea Flop" was named "for the first notes of the melody, which seemed to suggest a jumping flea. This is also dedicated to the hotels and motels that jazz sidemen are obliged to stay in all over the country." The composition "Yokada Yokada" was named after the song "Yakety Yak

Yakety Yak

"Yakety Yak" is a song written, produced, and arranged by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller for The Coasters and released on Atlantic Records in 1958, spending seven weeks as number one on the R&B charts and a week as number one on the Hot 100 pop list...

", referring to "senseless dialogue between people," whilst "Alfred" was, of course, dedicated to producer Alfred Lion

Alfred Lion

Alfred Lion was a Jewish German-born American record executive who co-founded Blue Note Records in 1939 Blue Note recorded many of the biggest names in jazz throughout the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.-Biography:...

 because of his "natural understanding of jazz in general," and because of the rapport that was established in the interpretation of Hill's tunes. The title track "Judgment" was inspired by a poem written by Hill's wife, Lavern. Ultimately, "Reconciliation" wants to represent "the adjustment every musician has to make to achieve unity and harmony with the rest of the group."

Track listing

All compositions by Andrew Hill

1. "Siete Ocho" - 8:58
2. "Flea Flop" - 7:21
3. "Yokada Yokada" - 5:17
4. "Alfred" - 7:04
5. "Judgment" - 6:53
6. "Reconciliation" - 7:24
7. "Yokada Yokada" [alternate take] - 5:12 Bonus track on CD

Personnel

• Andrew Hill
  Andrew Hill
  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...
  
   - piano
• Richard Davis - double-bass
• 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....
  
   - drums
• 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...
  
  - vibraphone