Amazing when you think about all the debuts on Blue Note that were stone classics.
John Coltrane's Blue Train, Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch, Wayne Shorter's Night Dreamer, and Johnny Coles' Little Johnny C. to name a few.
Andrew Hill is a clear Thelonious Monk disciple, but certainly more advanced and perhaps more quirky sounding?
I actually prefer Andrew Hill over Monk. Sacrilege perhaps, but I do enjoy the Hill's music more overall. I don't mean that as a slight to Monk.
Black Fire is a very fulfilling album, quartet and trio performances, with advances modal styles, with a hint of Afro-Cuban mixed in offering an exotic vibe.
Continually I marvel at how many great post bop Blue Note classics from the 60's tenor Saxophonist Joe Henderson played on. Black Fire is no exception, a muscular tone and searching.
You mustn't think of Black Fire as a pure avant-garde jazz record, I don't think it is all that "out" there. Sure it's in the neighborhood, but it is not even remotely free jazz.
Black Fire is structured and composed, hardly atonal... it's in the vein of the Miles Davis second quintet, POST BOP rather.
This music was recorded well before Wayne shorter joined that band; and 2 years before Miles Smiles was released. Imagine Hill with Davis instead of Hancock? I could dig it! Andrew can get a little funky too like Herbie.
The lead off track "Pumpkin" is very different, really gets a Miles Davis quintet vibe going, the Richard Davis bass line is very Ron Carter like, or Was Ron Carter Richard Davis like?
Andrew stretches out all over the map, this seems like free improvisation to me, very off the cuff, has a live vibe. The Roy Haynes drums are recorded remarkably well I might add, Stellar.
This RVG remaster I am listing to while writing this sounds very good, one of the best CD's I have heard lately. Admittedly some of these have had a tinny sound to me, sometimes distortion can bleed through, not this one.
I have a hard time believing that the vinyl would sound that much better, and I am a vinyl nut. Black Fire happens to be one of the few 60's Blue Notes that I don't own as an original or at least 70's reissue. Always seems like the price tag for near mint copy, even the Liberty issues are well over 50 dollars plus.
I dig the trio track "Subterfuge" Bassist Davis is doing some pretty remarkable playing on this track, even a nice little solo turn, underrated apparently is Davis, never focused on the track like this before, bassist Davis is pretty darned good.
"Cantarnos" is a nice minor key track, that shows Henderson playing in the vein of John Coltrane on the track "Teo" off of the Miles Davis classic Someday My Prince Will Come.
Henderson is seaching and probing, but perhaps not hell bent on destroying Hank Mobley, as it sounds like Coltrane was attempting, and succeeding on that album where Mobley also appeared.
Anyway, that's how it sounds to me on that particular album. Henderson doesn't over do it here, but the vibe did remind of "Teo".
Overall Black Fire really is a stellar post bop record, and proves to me Andrew Hill was an all time great. He should get more consideration as a one of the real advancers of the music at the same time John Coltrane's classic mid 60's band was taking shape.
As much as I like Davis and Coltrane, you could never convince me Andrew Hill's genius wasn't their equal. When I hear Black Fire, or Hill's Point of Departure for that matter, we are talking about some seriously groundbreaking jazz that today, 50 plus years later sounds like it has not aged at all. That fact, the music of modern jazz sounding fresh and sometimes completely new 50 years after it was developed, speaks volumes to me. It's timeless, as much as a 200 year old symphony is.
1 comment:
Such a perfect album in every way; mind boggling to think he recorded Black Fire, Smokestack, Judgment, Point of Departure, and Andrew within an 8 month period in 63/64. I can't think of anybody else that can match that run. I was fortunate enough to get to see him at the Chicago Jazz festival in the late 90s--spellbinding.
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