***** ANDREW HILL – ANDREW!!! *****
1. The Griots
2. Black Monday
3. Duplicity
4. Le Serpent Qui Danse
5. No Doubt
6. Symmetry
7. The Griots (alternate take)
8. Symmetry (alternate take)
John Gilmore – tenor sax
Bobby Hutcherson – vibes
Andrew Hill – piano
Richard Davis – bass
Joe Chambers – drums
Recorded on June 25, 1964 at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
All Compositions by Andrew Hill
24-bit Ron McMaster
2005 Blue Note
review[-]by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Anyone familiar with Andrew Hill’s music will find the cover to Andrew!!! a little bizarre, to say the least. Hill was one of the most intense and cerebral musicians on Blue Note’s roster, incorporating avant-garde and modal techniques into his adventurous post-bop. The cover to Andrew!!! apparently is an attempt to humanize Hill — it’s a soft-focus close-up of a smiling Andrew Hill, who looks more like a teen idol than a serious jazz musician, and the first-name title is adorned with no less than three exclamation marks and a subtitle, “The Music of Andrew Hill,” which suggests that it’s an album of romantic, easy-listening standards. It’s not. Andrew!!! is just as adventurous and challenging as any of his other albums, which is to Hill’s credit. The pianist leads tenor saxophonist John Gilmore, vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Joe Chambers through a set of six original songs. Often, the music has a floating, hypnotic quality, which only makes Hill’s dissonance, unusual voicings, and complex arrangements more compelling than usual. Andrew!!!, if anything, is even less accessible than the previous Point of Departure, but its restless, searching quality and endlessly provocative music makes it just as successful.