Andrew Hill's "Andrew !!!" Sat on the Shelf For 4 Years Before Alfred Lion Released It

damned if I know why !!!

The small label always felt economic pressure so perhaps it was a financial decision because it couldn't have been a musical one. Point of Departure is considered his best by many Hill fans but all of his Blue Note output is exceptional and if not exceptional, certainly worthy—as anyone fortunate to own The Complete Blue Note Andrew Hill Sessions (1963-66) (Mosaic MQ10-161) can attest. Hill's output over a three year period was prodigious and significant.

As I started preparing this review, vibraphonist Walt Dickerson's To My Queen featuring Hill arrived from The Electric Recording Company (New Jazz 8283/ERC 115). The 1962 Van Gelder recording features George Tucker on bass and Andrew Cyrille on drums. Hill's mention in the annotation required a "(an exciting pianist from Chicago)" introduction—that's how relatively unknown he was at that time. A year later he was a leader on Blue Note.

In his 1995 box set annotation, the late Michael Cuscuna quotes Hill, who for years was incorrectly said to have been born in Haiti "It seemed like a good career move at the time. I was spelling my name with an E on the end for a while. I met Andrew Cyrille, and he told me that was a Haitian name. Boom. I was Haitian. Growing up in the black belt no matter how high I rose, I could only go so far because there was such a color caste system in Chicago. So being from Haiti was a good neutralizer. But then, of course, as soon as I got that going, black nationalism came in. Just my luck". Hill was never accused of eating anyone's pets.

Long story short, Hill moved to L.A. after a time with Roland Kirk in Chicago, and then to New York where he connected with Joe Henderson, who brought him along for Henderson's second BN album Our Thing. Alfred Lion liked what he heard and invited Hill back to be on Hank Mobley's No Room For Squares. When Lion asked Hill about original material, what poured forth so impressed Lion he signed him on the spot. According to Cuscuna's annotation, four full "financially burdensome" albums were in the can before a single one was released!

Nonetheless, Hill wrote the tune "Rumproller" that Lion felt could be a follow up hit for Lee Morgan, whose "Sidewinder" was hugely popular and successful, even charting as a singlel, but the "Sidewinder" success was a one off. The rest of the Hill saga as told by Cuscuna in the Mosaic annotation is of a brilliant musician, academic (doctorate from Colgate) who never caught fire with the public— until now.

I bring up this history because for many contemporary jazz fans Hill is kind of an outlier mystery man. He was post-bop but hardly free form. His music, while free of "genre-ization", has polyrhythmic, percussive form as well as textural density, and it's melodic as hell, but often in rotating sequences that come and go.

Time has finally caught up with Hill. If you didn't buy Point of Departure or Black Fire, when they were reissued, Andrew !!! is an equally good entry point. It features Bobby Hutcherson's vibes, Sun Ra Arkestra member John Gilmore on tenor sax, Joe Chambers on drums and Richard Davis on bass (plays on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, where he's good, even memorable even to the point of almost taking over the entire thing) but here you really get to hear a musical wonder at work.

If you're a Monk fan and not Hill acquainted,"Griot" the opening track (misspelled "Groit" on the original pressing) will cinch the deal. The tune is a simple five note repeated figure that after it's first play gets playfully broken down by Hill (you could say exploded) almost as Monk would do it, then further broken down, then the rest of the group digs in to the seemingly cacophonous order. It's not difficult to follow and puzzle-like fun to hear it repeated further broken down into rhythmic pieces. Gilmore's lines are playful, circuitous flutterings. Once you've got that tune under your musical belt, you're good to go! Davis's remarkable solo on "Duplicity" never fails to elicit wonder.

Sonically, Van Gelder gets everything right, from the ring of Hutherson's vibes in the left channel to Chambers right paired with Gilmore's juicy tone way out front and Hill center stage democratically mixed to never hog the spotlight.

First play I said to myself "man, Rudy had a bright day!" because the overall balance is brighter than usual for an RVG recording from that era, but still quite good, especially the piano, which is not at all boxy as is often the case.

I played it for a visiting manufacturer and he heard it as well. Then I said I'll put it on the Furutech demag" and he chuckled thinking I was being sarcastic. "You can't demagnetize plastic," he said. I said "This has never not worked! The most skeptical listener hears it every time so let's try". A minute or so on the Furutech and within 30 seconds he heard it! Much warmer, richer, less "upfront leading edge brightness". Never fails again!

As is without a demag, it's a fine recording and a worthy Tone Poet reissue whether to add to your Hill collection or to begin it!