Andrew Hill

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Andrew Hill

Andrew Hill (born June 30, 1931 in Chicago , Illinois , † April 20, 2007 in Jersey City , New Jersey ) was an American jazz pianist and composer.

biography

Hill started playing the accordion when he was seven and taught himself the piano when he was ten. He took piano lessons at the age of thirteen and also received composition lessons from Paul Hindemith . He performed with Charlie Parker , Miles Davis and Johnny Griffin as a teenager . In 1956 he recorded with the doo-wop group De'bonairs for the short-lived label Ping Records ; In 1961 he was the companion of Dinah Washington in New York , and in 1962 he worked with Rahsaan Roland Kirk in Los Angeles . He made his debut at Blue Note Records in 1963 as the pianist on Joe Henderson's album Our Thing . On the same label , he released a number of recordings that are now considered classic under his own name in the 1960s. He also played a significant role in Bobby Hutcherson's album Dialogue 1965. However, with his rhythmically complex and harmonically unusual music, which was difficult to access to the general public , he had only modest commercial success. Stylistically he was rooted in hard bop , but developed his music in the direction of avant-garde and free jazz .

Since the 1970s he worked mainly as a teacher. He lived in California from 1977 to 1989 , where he a. a. taught in public schools and prisons. He taught at Portland State University in Oregon and gave workshops at Wesleyan University , the University of Michigan , the University of Toronto , Harvard University and Bennington College . But he also continued to publish recordings.

In 1998 he founded the Point of Departure Sextet and also worked in a trio with bassist Scott Colley and drummer Nasheet Waits . In 2006 Hill released his last and much acclaimed album with Time Lines . With that he returned to Blue Note Records , the record company with which he had celebrated his greatest successes.

Hill died of lung cancer, which he was diagnosed three years before his death.

Awards

Discography

Collections

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ New York Times obituary, April 21, 2007. Encyclopedias such as Kunzler's Jazzlexikon often incorrectly read June 30, 1937 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, because Hill himself had said so.
  2. ↑ Before that, only one LP was released in trio with Malachi Favors and James Slaughter , on which Hill (apart from two original compositions) only played jazz standards such as Body and Soul . The album was re-released by Fresh Sound Records .
personal data
SURNAME Hill, Andrew
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 2007
Place of death Jersey City , New Jersey