Pianist Andrew Hill is most celebrated for his diverse run of recordings for the Blue Note label in the 1960s, but his work after that stretch is no less worthy of consideration. He continued pushing boundaries until the very end, and no recording illustrates this better than A Beautiful Day, Revisited, which expands and remasters exquisite 2002 live big band performances by the Andrew Hill Sextet Plus 10 from the stage of Birdland. An additional recording of the title composition is this new edition’s centerpiece, illuminating Hill’s method, which thrives on the spontaneity of a skilled, unified ensemble. The set is out now in vinyl, compact disc, and digital from Palmetto Records.
If Andrew Hill’s representation in the jazz canon is slimmed down to a single LP (which is frankly harsh treatment for such an important if undersung figure), then that record is almost certainly Point of Departure. Released in 1964, it was the fourth album he cut for Blue Note and the third to be released by the label, featuring Joe Henderson on tenor sax and flute, Eric Dolphy on alto sax, bass clarinet, and flute, Kenny Dorham in trumpet, Richard Davis on bass, and Tony Williams on drums.
The focus on Hill’s association with Blue Note is deepened by a return to the label for a pair of albums, Eternal Spirit and But Not Farewell, in 1989 and ’91. Time Lines, Hill’s final studio album prior to his passing in 2007, was also released by Blue Note in ’06; during the same period, a handful of unissued sessions from the Blue Note archive emerged, Passing Ships in ’03, Pax in ’06, and Change in ’07.
Sadly, Hill’s work for SteepleChase, Freedom, East Wind, Artist House, and Soul Note in the 1970s and ’80s is still too often overlooked. Dusk, the first of two records for the Palmetto label (A Beautiful Day being the other), is amongst Hill’s best-known work however, as it was chosen as the best album of 2001 by both DownBeat and JazzTimes magazines.
With one exception, A Beautiful Day, Revisited features the same sextet as Dusk. That’s Hill on piano, Marty Ehrlich on alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet and flute, Greg Tardy on tenor sax, clarinet and bass clarinet, Ron Horton on trumpet, Scott Colley on bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums (replacing Billy Drummond, who played on Dusk).
The Plus 10 consisted of Aaron Stewart on tenor sax, John Savage on alto sax and flute, J.D. Parron on baritone sax and bass clarinet, Dave Ballou, Laurie Frink, and Bruce Staelens on trumpets, Charlie Gordon, Joe Fielder, and Mike Fahn on trombones and Jose D’Avila on tuba, the additional personnel fulfilling a longtime desire by Hill to compose for big band.
In service of this goal, Horton served as arranger and conductor. The manner in which Horton assumed this role is a major aspect of this album’s backstory; pianist Frank Kimbrough related to Hill that Horton was transcribing Hill’s music, which in turn led to a meeting and then Horton joining Hill’s band. Soon after, Horton began arranging for what Hill called his Point of Departure Sextet, which is the group (with personnel changes) that recorded Dusk and A Beautiful Day.
Indicative of Hill’s artistic sensibility is how the sextet’s name references a highpoint in the pianist-composer’s musical journey but was dedicated to playing new material. Likewise, when Hill confided in Horton that he wished to hear his music in a big band setting, the compositions Hill presented posed a challenge to Horton in that they seemed unfinished, especially in relation to the trumpeter’s own transcriptions of Hill’s music.
The reality is what first appeared to Horton as compositional fragments in service of a mysterious method were instead designed to enliven the music through risk instead of codify it through an overreliance on structure. Although he dabbled in the jazz mainstream, writing “The Rumproller” for Lee Morgan and cutting what was essentially a soul jazz album in Grass Roots for Blue Note with Morgan in the band in 1968, Hill’s general mode of operation was more often as a cerebral satellite orbiting the avant-garde, but never touching down in the wilder regions of free jazz.
A Beautiful Day begins with Horton’s arrangement of “Divine Revelation,” the title track on Hill’s 1976 album for SteepleChase, it’s opening firmly establishing the music as belonging to the big band idiom, though Tardy and Stewart’s massive tenor sax tangle pushes the collective thrust outward. Contrasting, “Faded Beauty” is compositionally gorgeous as Savage’s flute and Ehrlich’s bass clarinet nod back to Dolphy on Point of Departure while charting distinct territory.
For fans of the original release, the real thrill of Revisited will come in the uniqueness of the two takes of the title composition. The previously unreleased Thursday version is from the opening night at Birdland, the first time the band played the entire song as related in Matt Balitasris’ album note. Roughly four minutes longer than the version on the original release (there is a distinct soloist order), the Thursday excursion impressively avoids an aura of the tentative.
Instead, it is wonderful to hear a group of master musicians bringing Andrew Hill’s work to fruition, and it’s striking that Hill remained so dedicated to continued musical growth rather than just creatively coasting. A Beautiful Day, Revisited propels an already remarkable work to the forefront of a magnificent discography.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
