You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?

You thought there would be no more Andrew Hill-ing on this here Twitter account once I got through his most famous recording.

Well you were wrong.

Here, at last, is Andrew's sixth/seventh album, ANDREW!!! recorded June 25, 1964. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kZMLRsx-wp4VI5-s4OGAUrLHFD39C5rXY

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N.B.: ANDREW!!! was the sixth album Hill recorded; however, it was the seventh to be released, dropping in April 1968 (after the previous 5 and the for-our-purposes-still-unrecorded COMPULSION!!!!!)

ANDREW HILL - piano
JOHN GILMORE - tenor saxophone
BOBBY HUTCHERSON - vibraphone
RICHARD DAVIS - bass
JOE CHAMBERS - drums

Recall that John Gilmore was in the Sun Ra Arkestra--which was in Chicago when Hill was getting his start there. They played together at that time. At this moment, however, Gilmore was at the start of a brief tenure with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.

TRACK 1 - "The Griots" -
(There's an unfortunate tendency across various pressings of the album, as well as the Youtube video below, to print this title as "The Groits." Boo.)

4/4 time, 12 bars: AB (A=8 bars; b=4 bars). Gilmore lays out.

The melody is among Hill's most "singsong," shall we say. So much so that even Hill can't quite break away from it when his solo begins at 0:41; he returns to it frequently in his first 2 choruses. Of course when the 3rd starts at 1:19, we're in different waters.

Note how Chambers completely changes up, moves into a fast 3/4 for 9 bars at the start of Hill's 3rd chorus. He doesn't repeat (and actually, Hill gets more thematic again from here, though the 6th (2:18) is much like the 3rd) but it's easy to hear it as Joe offering a challenge.

(There is an alternate take of "The Griots" here: and there ain't no 3/4 change-up! That said, Hill's solo is nearly as good on that one as this one!)

9 choruses for AH, then Davis begins at 3:37. It's a mean one, staying mostly low (with some feints), but rhythmically and harmonically it's something like a continuation of his always free(ish) comp. 3 choruses.

As RD ends (4:35), Hill catches Hutcherson by surprise: BH starts to play the head again, but 1 bar in, Hill starts to improvise again instead. (This doesn't happen on the alternate take, either.)

2 more dynamite Hill choruses, then head out at 5:15.

TRACK 2 - "Black Monday" -
4/4 time, 44 bars, sorta: A 20-bar form (A1=10, B=6, A2=4) is played twice, with a 4-bar extension of A2 on the second run-through. Because he's Andrew Hill, that's why.

In any case, it's a beautiful ballad melody, though not at ballad tempo. At least Joe isn't: he's doing a confident, if light-touched, midtempo trot. Gilmore articulates the melody in sweet, long tones, Hill doubling him (one octave up). BH accents, RD doing syncopated accents.

On the second run through RD is freer, still hitting the accents but much more out as well.

Hutcherson starts at 1:28 and it's a remarkably delicate, kid-glove solo. The lines are strong, but the notes themselves are quite small and light. RD's continued explorations are nearly as prominent as BH is.

Speaking of RD, he starts at 2:58 on the heels of a single chorus from BH. His first half (ABA) seems uncertain. Short phrases punctuated by long pauses, not really any coherent statements until B. More linear, cohesive logic once we're in the second ABA. But JG stops there.

*JG, not RD.

4:22 - AH announces himself with a quick trill, and a brief feint at the written theme...and after that is just so good, so smart, I don't know what else to say.

Yes I do. I call out the beautiful bell-like line that begins his second chorus at 5:48, with Joe C. having gone into a sleight-of-hand shuffle.

Keep an ear on RD as he code-switches between one- and two-to-the-bar comping and these chromatic runs and slurs up and down the fretboard.

7:13, back to the head.

TRACK 3 - "Duplicity" -
4/4 time, 13 bars (A=6, B=7), played twice. An urgent, even frantic, linear theme; you'd call it through-composed if it didn't keep resting at the bar lines.

Gilmore is highly declarative in playing the melody, and absolutely imperative in his improvisation (0:39). His phrases all fly like arrows with sharpened heads, the more so for the irregular pauses he puts into them.

It rises to a frenzy in his fourth chorus (1:36--actually in the last couple of bars of the third, so 1:33), raising the temperature of the already-sizzling tune...then, just as Davis and Chambers catch his manic energy, he tamps it down again for the solo's close.

1:55 - Davis. Two choruses with tremendous melodic imagination but great *rhythmic* similarity to the written piece. The accents, the rests, the runs, all very close to those of the melody.

Hill's solo begins at 2:33; as always it starts with a feint toward the melody, then moves quickly away. Like Davis, it's got the same rhythmic signature as the written melody--at least in the first chorus.

His second chorus, at 2:52, starts with a syncopation, then goes into something like an abstracted double time. At bar 9 (3:04), he quotes the melody--HE'S TRYING TO TRIP YOU UP. DO NOT FALL FOR IT.

Third chorus at 3:11, and AH is low-key exploring; he's working in a very narrow range here, but coming up with interesting stuff...and again he quotes the opening phrase of the theme (a shorter quote) at bar 9 (3:23). And AGAIN in bar 9 (3:43) of chorus 4!

But in case you were thinking he lost his place, he follows that quote with a paraphrase, in bar 10, of the melody's 10th bar. He knows exactly where he is: He's toying with us!

3:50, chorus 5, and yet another quote of the melody's opening, this time in the right place. This is the best part of the solo: he explodes the written material, brings his line to a logical conclusion, and adds a 14th-bar coda.

Then comes Bobby (4:10). A solid line that initially appears delicate in its construction, as was "Black Monday," but it's not the case. This is firm, durable material, as the high-speed arpeggios in the last three bars should amply prove. Slides right into chorus 2 (4:30).

Three more choruses follow; Hutcherson doesn't bother trying to make melodic connections to the composition. (E.g., The trill at the start of chorus 3, followed by a lightning-fast run. That's a power hit, y'all.)

5:27 Hill cues the head, and they play through it twice more, the second time a slight diminuendo from the first.

Side break. Let's go out to the lobby...