Customer Reviews

Mosaic Select-Andrew Hill

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mr. Andrew Hill (1937-2007) has been one of my favorite jazz pianists since the seventies. I discovered his improvising and composing abilities through his cooperation with Eric Dolphy on 'Point of Departure' (1964). Although I bought that one at a sale price some 10 years after its first release, I think I own an original copy of this `milestone' recording. All Hill's Blue Note, Soul Note, Freedom, etc. recordings as a leader and as a sideman followed and soon after its only LP release (1979) the `From California with Love' album on the Artists House label as well. A very intriguing LP, but unfortunately the pressing was not as good as the liner notes promised.
Since 2006 the album is available on compact disc in the Mosaic Select series (no. 23), accompanied off two other CD's from the same three autumn 1978 solo sessions in Berkeley, California. And now in perfect sound, although the `From California with Love' LP tape (Oct. 12) was no longer available. But strangely enough there were two other tracks from the session on the wheels, so that `Pastoral Pittsburg' and `Pittsburg Impasse' can be welcomed as bonuses on disc three.
The three sessions have been released on the three separate CD's, and as a result their length differs a lot (45 / 75 / 55 min). But the quality of the offered music is superb as usual: `angular', surprising, challenging, uncompromising. Nearly all compositions are by the late Mr. Hill himself; only `Gone With The Wind' and `I Remember Clifford' are from the Songbook, but Hill's soloing and improvising never comes to clichés. There are two alternate takes on respectively discs 1 and 2, of witch `Moonlit Monterey (alt.)' ends in a fade out. Was there more or did they run out of tape?
I was lucky to see Mr. Hill perform a few times in different settings: solo, in a trio and as a quintet and above all in the small big band size. It was never easy listening, but always an experience to remember. Several times there was (radio) recording equipment, and it is to be hoped that these performances (Amsterdam, The Hague) can be released in the future.
Until then this Mosaic (re)release is an important addition to Mr. Hill's recorded output, that can only be recommended to all connoisseurs of improvising jazz who like sounds from such colleagues as Fred Hersch, Richard Abrams and Thelonious Monk, although the latter is much more accessible. It is at least as important as that other Mosaic release (no. 16; 2005, with assorted combo recordings), and as 'A Beautiful Day' (12-piece orchestra, live), `Dusk' and `Time Lines' (quintet recordings), all from his 21st century output.