Customer Reviews

Grass Roots

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Nice to see this finally released on CD. This was a mainstream effort for Hill, and if you want more challenging Blue Note releases, try, for example, "Point of Departure," "Judgment" or "Black Fire." (The latter two may be difficult to find. The best single source for his music is the seven-CD Mosaic boxed set. "Grassroots" is not included in that collection.)

Still, the change of pace makes this one appealing. Any band that includes Booker Ervin and Lee Morgan is going to swing, and the two manage to make Hill's playing less dark and introspective than usual. On the other hand, the compositions themselves, especially "Mira" and "Soul Special," are mostly bright and upbeat, so maybe the material helped to determine the players. Hill's comments on the original liner notes indicate that he was ready with this release to dip more than a toe into the mainstream.

In any event, Booker is particularly joyful on the title cut and propels the album along throughout with his powerful, bluesy tone. It's a mark of Hill's keen musicianship that he brought in this criminally underrated player for the session. Lee Morgan rarely missed a note throughout his career and this date was no exception. He delivers solidly throughout.

One is generally best rewarded by careful, repeated listening to Hill's music. "Grassroots" is unusual in that it grabs immediately. In my opinion, it isn't as deeply and consistently satsifying as the other releases I mentioned, but it's well worth having if you're a fan of his or if you simply want an easy introduction to his music.

Let me start off by saying that this album is comprised of two sessions with completely different personnel with the first session being tracks 1-5 and the second 6-10. The first session which was the one that was released back in 1968 is an all-star line up with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Booker Ervin on tenor sax, Andrew Hill of course on piano and who wrote all of the compositions, Ron Carter on bass, and Freddie Waits on drums.
This of course is an album with Hill covering a bit different ground than usual as this album is a lot more appealing to mainstream audiences than some of his other masterpieces of the 60s. But, the album still has that unmistakable sound of Hill.
So the first five tracks, as you would expect from the lineup, is great. There is passionate soloing by Ervin and somewhat more restrained but equally powerful soloing by Morgan. Hill as always never disappoints and never sounds in the least bit cliched or generic. My favorite of the first five tracks happens to be the most accessible, "Mira", which has a great melody and solos. It will stay in your head for days.

The second five tracks feature three of the same compositions and two new ones by a different band featuring Woody Shaw on trumpet, Frank Mitchell on tenor saxophone, Jimmy Ponder on guitar, Reggie Workman on bass, and Idris Muhammad on drums. As you would expect, the drumming is propulsive and funky, and the bass lines are tasteful and technically advanced. This was my first exposure to Mitchell and i wasn't that impressed with his playing, although his solo on Bayou Red is quite good. Shaw brings his signature sound to the table which works well with Hill's. "MC" is a pretty uninspired reading and really drags on for nine minutes with not much going for it except Hill's solo. "Soul Special" sounds completely different from the other version and is different in a really pleasing way. The tempo is taken much slower and everyone gets into the groove. "Love Nocturne" is a nice tender piece which has an interesting melody and some good soloing by all.
So even though the second part isn't quite as good as the first, if you put it into the context of when it was released, all you got was the first five tracks anyways, so you can just think of the second five as a bonus. All in all, a great purchase and a great addition to any serious 60s jazz collection.

"Lick" or "cliche" is not in Andrew Hill's musical vocabulary and this "new"release is no exception. I say "new" because four of the tracks have never before been released including the nine minute MC, and the seven minute Love Nocturne. When I think of the musical dross we were subjected to in the sixties when jazz players were scuffling to get a gig, washing dishes, or filled with despair when they saw their real talent count for little, like Woody Shaw, one can only thank heaven the likes of Michael Cuscuna are around to rescue their legacy. Examples of the quality and variety of this include the solo by Woody Shaw on Love Nocturne, the groove set up by Idris Muhammad, Reggie Workman, Jimmy Ponder and Reggie Workman on MC over which Frank Mitchell, Woody Shaw and then Ponder solo; Soul Special with its propelling groove and its typically fabulous piano solo by Mr Hill. But begin with the title song for a close listen: a majestic joyous solo by Booker Ervin and a conversational restrained masterful one by Lee Morgan, a typically sensitive and interesting solo by Mr Hill ending with the sole sound of the woody bass of Mr Carter. Apart from the exceptional players( I mean dig Lee Morgan's solo entrance on Bayou Red!) this CD has Mr Hill's writing to bring it to a level above just another gig. His guiding genius is all over this release and it's mainly for this reason that this reissue in the Blue Note connoisseur series is worth your attention. It is engineered by Mr Van Gelder with quite clear separation in the stereo which was the standard of the day. The programme of music has enough variety and intelligence to reward many, many listenings.

This is a rather interesting group of musicians for several reasons:

1) Blue Note Records, in the late 60's, pressured even esoteric musicians like Andrew Hill to make it a bit more mainstream, for the sake of financial stability. Andrew Hill? Mainstream?

2) Lee Morgan, the veteran hardbopper of the 50's and 60's, was participating in the kind of music he supposedly wanted to play more often (or even chiefly) - the more modal, open-ended, freer jazz with less restriction on groove.

3) Booker Ervin was a perfect mix between the two styles of "out" and "in," having played with everyone from Mingus to Dexter Gordon.

So what gives? When you have these three musicians with different styles collaborating with the obligation of playing something for the audience, what prevails?

The result is Grass Roots, the album that will make you forget silence forever.

You get two jazz groups for the price of one! The first quintet featured comprises of Hill, Morgan, Ervin, Ron Carter, and Freddie Waits. The bonus group has the marvelous Woody Shaw, undiscovered Frank Mitchell, soulful guitarist Jimmy Ponder, Reggie Workman, and Idris Muhammad. The contrast between the groups is fascinating: the first group sounds much more relaxed, groovy, restrained, and emphasized on the melodies. The second group brings more energy, abstruseness, fiery improvisation, and tension in general. The result is an album that starts calmly and picks up in ferocity with time.

Andrew Hill, bless his soul, will be remembered as one of jazz's most profound composers. No other composer blends depth, memorable melodies, infinite springboards for improvisation, and inspiration in song, but Hill does. Listen to the loose title tune, which completely captures the album picture with a happily free feeling, all in the one chord change of Fsus4. Both takes of "Venture Inward" spiral OUTwards, and you can trust the melody to weave in and out of reality. "Soul Special" does exactly what it says, and "Mira" is a one-chord mambo-tinged tune that could go on forever if it wanted (I played this for over 20 minutes with my group a few weeks ago). "Bayou Red" builds in tension the more it progresses, perfectly wound up by its melody and tense chords. "MC" is an explosion of the avant garde with one of the best solos Woody Shaw has ever played, and "Love Nocturne" leaves the listener shaking with illumination.

It's one of the few albums that you can listen to five times a day and never tire of. I listen to this everyday during my work shift, and the opening bass riff of Grass Roots never ceases to enthrall. The melodies are just so fresh, and the improvisations hit the mind with power and delight. Grass Root rivals Hill's heralded masterpiece "Point of Departure" in that it doesn't betray the core of melody, while highlighting embellishments of these melodies that have never happened before, and, frankly, never will.

This album, part of Blue Note's "Connoisseur" series, is priced steeply. Even used copies are up there. At least its shining majesty is worth the price (and you can probably download it online for cheaper, anyway, since online downloads are becoming the next thing).

Some may find Ervin's superfluous playing a bit much, especially on the first track. He blazes out of the gates with 32nd and 64th notes, obviously very excited to be at the record session. Since the album's concept was to emphasize accessibility and the mainstream audience, Lee Morgan has to remind him of this by taking his last lick and playing it over and over again, calmly and plaintively.

This album is one of the most overlooked in the history of Blue Note and jazz in general, and continues to get passed over for either the funk records of the 60's or the completely "out" stuff such as that by Ornette Coleman and Sam Rivers. It's a shame that the music that Hill generated, which was so hauntingly unique in its essence, combining his forward-thinking harmonic and melodic mind with the basis of improvisation, isn't revered more. I can't think of any records that match its unique beauty except for more Andrew Hill records.

Lee Morgan was bleeding profusely out of his teeth when this session was cut. There are two disputing reports of this injury's cause - a "swimming accident," or his teeth were knocked out by a demanding drug dealer (now which do you think it was?). Either way, his teeth were wired and Hill lauded his bravery in continuing to play to the best of his ability. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise, as this album boasts Morgan's most mature, graceful, and concise musicality of his career. If it were recorded 10 years earlier, half of his playing would be up an octave and twice as fast.

These two quintets are presented out of order. The second recording session actually took place 4/19/1968, before the other one. The music was cerebral and amazingly unique, but evidently not "mainstream" enough to be released. Therefore, Hill called in some more "mainstream" musicians such as Morgan and Ervin to the studios on 8/05/1968 to dumb it down. Somehow, the music maintained its singular sheen and still was as intelligent as Hill wanted it to be.

The second quintet gets the edge in improvisation, mainly because of the superb chops and harmonic dexterity of Shaw (only 24 at this time) and the daredevil-approach by Mitchell, who seems to have been listening to Wayne Shorter religiously. The first group presents the better ambience, since their emphasis on melody and terseness changes the room the music is being played in into a realm of active placidness. So which group is better? That's for you to decide.

The best track is Venture Inward (second group's interpretation, or "first version"). Listen to the way Shaw will hit his unique note (usually 4ths and 2nds), hang on it, and add a bit of vibrato to add emphasis. This track's power is very great, and evokes the ancient streets of New Orleans in its freedom of improvisation.

Many tales have been told about jazz's need to embrace the intellect while striking the smallest child to the busiest businessman right in the soul. Not enough tales are told about Grass Roots, which deviates from the customary late 60's fare and gives you no option but to hark.

This is nice finger-popping grooves by a composer who is often more abstract and avant garde.

The compositions are first rate and the rhythm sections grooves and there is fine solo work, especially from the trumpet players Lee Morgan or Woody Shaw.