Andrew Hill - Point of Departure

*****

Something really special 2 Feb 2006

History has been singularly unfair to Andrew Hill. He released several albums during the 1960s, but quickly thereafter faded into obscurity when he found no more funding to produce more records. However, this one disc is enough to mark him as a bandleader of great originality and imagination, and a composer of rare talent.

The band itself is very similar to that which recorded Eric Dolphy's masterpiece "Out to Lunch", but this session is by no means a simple rehash of those principles. The compositions are as far removed from Tin Pan Alley as Dolphy's, but they seem more immediately cohesive, and (though this be sacreligous to say as much), less wearing on the ear. The playing is terrific througout, especially from the 18-year-old Tony Williams, who is given great freedom to twist and turn the beat which Hill holds steady. Joe Henderson deserves, in my opinion, greater acclaim for being a geniunely distinctive tenor voice during the 1960s when placed next to Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy provides exhilarating alto solos.

This isn't run-of the mill jazz by any means, but it is a first-rate band playing really special music. Buy it.