Point To Andrew Hill

You know what's so great about classic Jazz albums? You can never get tired of them no matter how many listens you give it. You always find ways of hearing a different approach or idea. Take the album Point of Departure from Andrew Hill. At first listen I once thought it was just a Jazz album from the 1960's. I had no idea it's classic status for quite a long time. I was handed this CD when I went back to school. A friend told me that it is a must listen and a great study if your going to talk Jazz to those professors. I mean I had a few classic albums up my sleeve but this was the one to sneak in there and really let them know you understand great music.

I knew from the first listen I was going to like this album. It had three people I really do take anything they put out musically. I think Eric Dolphy and Tony Williams are geniuses and Joe Henderson has a great sound and tone that very few sax players can do. I knew I was up for this wonderful musical journey. While in College I took this album with me for great listening. I decided to study it and try to how to understand what makes an album a classic. I know how the others in Jazz make one, but for Andrew Hill it took me a bit longer to figure out. I love every part of Dolphy's playing and Williams's drumming but still coumd not figure out what it is that so damn' good.



After my first semester back in the college setting I went to see my friend who gave me the album. He asked me what I thought. I fudged it and told him how much I loved it. I did like it, but could not place the finger on what made it great. I could never figure out what it was. The interplay between everybody was wonderful and really new. I knew I had this notion with the idea that it was not Ornette, or Coltrane, but it was still great. I mean the help of Eric Dolphy made the music wonderful. After I left my friend I think I got the reason of greatness of Andrew Hill. It was Andrew Hill himself. My friend is a piano player and when he told me about the playing of Andrew Hill I realized he was right.

Every part of the Point of Departure is classic. From the extended solos by Hill to the great playing by just about everybody. It's too bad, like I said in a previous post that Eric Dolphy did not live longer because his playing is wonderful. Andrew Hill plays a great piano, but sadly gets lost in the greats of Hancock, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett. It's his playing all over the map that makes him a true treasure. Hill's large, open chords that flat sevenths, ninths, and even 11ths in their striding to move through the mode, into a wellspring of angular hard bop and minor-key blues. In Hill's compositional world, everything is up for grabs. It just has to be taken a piece at a time, and not by leaving your fingerprints all over everything. In "Dedication," where he takes the piano solo further out melodically than on the rest of the album combined, he does so gradually. You cannot remember his starting point, only that there has been a transformation.



This is a stellar date, essential for any representative jazz collection, and a record that, in the 21st century, still points the way to the future for jazz. After listening to this you as well will like this album as much as I do. Andrew Hill is a great piano player and hearing this proves that he should be talked about in that same breath as the others. Listen to this and you will tell your friends you found a great album that tops your list. Enjoy! People who already love Jazz will go back to this album again and again. Have fun and remember where it all came from!