Andrew Hill - Lift Every Voice (1969)

This is part of Blue Note's Limited Edition Connoisseur series.

The CD reissue of Andrew Hill's remarkably advanced fusion of voices and jazz quintet not only resuscitates the long out of print 1969 LP Lift Every Voice from oblivion, it adds an entire unreleased, untitled album from 1970, more than doubling the original playing time. Having once composed a jazz opera, Hill usually treats his voices in a sustained operatic manner, but this is not a classical-jazz fusion; the voices are fastened onto a pure jazz quintet base. This is highly unusual, to say the least, yet it works surprisingly well, whether in wild wordless scat passages or when employed in the freedom-conscious lyrics of the title track. On the original Lift Every Voice album, Hill is joined by trumpeter Woody Shaw (who gets off some wicked muted licks on "Ghetto Lights"), an impassioned Carlos Garnett on tenor sax, Richard Davis on bass, and Freddie Watts on drums. This quintet is hardly a complacent hard bop outfit; like many of Hill's Blue Note bands, it searches and ruminates, backed by Watts' shifting, at times funky, rhythms. The 1970 album expands the palette of voices from seven to nine, and Hill's backup band changes over completely, featuring the always-crackling Lee Morgan on trumpet; Bennie Maupin's still-developing hard-edged tenor sax, bass clarinet, and dancing flute; Ron Carter on bass; and Ben Riley on drums. The concept is the same as it was in 1969, but Hill's material isn't quite as striking -- hence one probable reason why the album was shelved. Also, this music was perhaps too way out there for the traditional hard bop Blue Note audience and not commercial enough for the label's emerging R&B slant. In any case, these would be among Hill's last sessions for Blue Note, after which he would shift operations to Colgate University en route to a doctorate. ~ Richard S. Ginell

Digitally remastered by Ron McMaster.

6 Bonus Tracks

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on May 16, 1969 and March 6 & 13, 1970. Originally released on Blue Note (84330). Includes liner notes by Leonard Feather.

Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna.

Personnel: Andrew Hill (piano); Gail Nelson, Lachlan Williams, Lillian Williams, Joan Johnson, Milt Grayson, Ron Stewart (vocals); Bennie Maupin (flute, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone); Carlos Garnett (tenor saxophone); Lee Morgan , Woody Shaw (trumpet); Frederick Waits, Ben Riley (drums).

Audio Remixer: Malcolm Addey.

Liner Note Author: Leonard Feather.

Recording information: New York, NY (05/16/1969); Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (05/16/1969).

Producer: Francis Wolf.

Down Beat (1/02, p.54) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...Fascinatingly icy...breaking sonic ground..."

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Andrew Hill - Grass Roots (1968)

Words by Andrew Hill: "Before this, I had been trying to gratify myself as a musician. It's inevitable, I guess, in the process of finding yourself as an artist you have to keep on proving yourself, testing your skills. But that kind of self-absorption tends to leave out a large number of people. I felt finally that the time had come for me - and perhaps for jazz - to make an album like this. I'm not proving myself here. I'm not concerned with what may or may not be hip now or in the future. I want to give something. I want to reach out from myself to make people happy who listen to this. That's what grass roots are in music. Getting down to the basics, getting down as deep as you can into feeling."

"I tried to write each [song] as lyrically as possible, but each in a different mood. The title song came to mind when I was in Central Park one day just watching some animals. Looking at them, I thought that human beings consider animals naive, but how naive we are! We are almost down to the question of the very survival of the human race and yet there are people - I call them 'high school intellectuals' - totally immersed in the divisions between people on the basis of color or class or whatever. And then I saw some kids playing together in the park. They were of different races, but they were having a great time. There was no malice, no animosity among them. Where they were, the way they were acting, are to me the real roots of mankind. So, what the song is about is that rather than being consumed by rage or, for that matter, rather than proclaiming 'love' for everyone, I just wanted to tell about life as it really is. And you know, real life isn't bad at all."

Tracks 1-5: Lee Morgan [trumpet], Booker Ervin [tenor sax], Andrew Hill [piano], Ron Carter [bass], Freddie Waits [drums]. Tracks 6-10: Woody Shaw [trumpet], Frank Mitchell [tenor sax], Jimmy Ponder [guitar], Reggie Workman [bass], Idris Muhammad [drums].
Recorded April 19 [6-10] & August 5 [1-5], 1968, at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

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