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17-535: Eternal Spirit is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill , recorded in 1989 and released on the Blue Note label. The album features six of Hill's original compositions performed by his quintet with alto saxophonist Greg Osby , vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson , bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Ben Riley . Three alternate takes were added to the CD release as bonus tracks . The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded

34-597: A 1963 interview with A. B. Spellman . Powell was an even greater influence, but Hill thought that his music was a dead end: "If you stay with Bud too much, you'll always sound like him, even if you're doing something he never did." Hill referred to Tatum as the epitome of "all modern piano playing". Source: Compilations With Walt Dickerson With Roland Kirk With Jimmy Woods With Hank Mobley With Joe Henderson With Bobby Hutcherson With Russel Baba With Reggie Workman With Greg Osby Dialogue (Bobby Hutcherson) Dialogue

51-557: A decade, producing a dozen albums. Hill was born in Chicago , Illinois , to William and Hattie Hill. He had a brother, Robert, who was a singer and classical violin player. Hill took up the piano at the age of thirteen, and was encouraged by Earl Hines . As a child, he attended the University of Chicago Experimental School . He was referred by jazz composer Bill Russo to Paul Hindemith , with whom he studied informally until 1952. While

68-464: A teenager, he performed in rhythm and blues bands and with touring jazz musicians, including Charlie Parker and Miles Davis . Hill recalls some of his experience as a youngster, during a 1964 interview with Leonard Feather : "I started out in music as a boy soprano, singing and playing the accordion , and tap dancing. I had a little act and made quite a few of the talent shows around town from 1943 until 1947. I won turkeys at two Thanksgiving parties at

85-503: Is an album by jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson , released on the Blue Note label in 1965. This was Hutcherson's first LP released as bandleader (an earlier session, The Kicker , has since been issued on CD by Blue Note) following work with Eric Dolphy . The album features four Andrew Hill compositions and two Joe Chambers pieces. It has received widespread critical acclaim and is considered by most critics one of Hutcherson's greatest achievements. Written in an 8/4 Latin style ,

102-463: The Regal Theatre ," parties sponsored by the newspaper Chicago Defender , which Hill coincidentally used to sell on the streets. In 1950, Hill learned his first blues changes on the piano from the saxophonist Pat Patrick and in 1953, he played his first professional job as a musician, with Paul Williams ' band. "At that time", he recalls, "I was playing baritone sax as well as piano." During

119-482: The University of Michigan , the University of Toronto , Harvard University , Bennington College and other schools. Hill's album Dusk was selected best album of 2001 by both DownBeat and JazzTimes ; and in 2003, Hill received the Jazzpar Prize . Hill's earlier work also received renewed attention as a result of the belated release of several unissued sessions recorded in the 1960s for Blue Note, notably

136-432: The album 4½ stars and stated "There are no weak performances on this superb post bop effort, Andrew Hill's strongest recording in several years". Andrew Hill (jazz musician) Jazz critic John Fordham described Hill as a "uniquely gifted composer, pianist and educator" although "his status remained largely inside knowledge in the jazz world for most of his career." Hill recorded for Blue Note Records for nearly

153-602: The ambitious large-group date Passing Ships . In 2004, he appeared on SOLOS: The Jazz Sessions . As a consequence of his renewed prominence, a new Blue Note album titled Time Lines was released on February 21, 2006. His final public performance was on March 29, 2007, at Trinity Church in New York City. It was while working at the Lighthouse Café, in Hermosa Beach that he met his future wife, Laverne Gillette, at

170-464: The first and second editions. According to the authors: " Dialogue stands head and shoulders above [Hutcherson's other classic Blue Note dates]. Drawing on some of the free-harmonic and -rhythmic innovations developed on Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch (on which Hutcherson played), he began to develop a complex contrapuntal style that involved parallel melodies rather than unisons and complex rhythmic patterns which he conceived... as focal points round which

187-532: The five pieces on Bobby Hutcherson's Dialogue album. Hill rarely worked as a sideman after the 1960s, preferring to play his own compositions. This may have limited his public exposure. He later taught in California and held a tenure-track faculty appointment at Portland State University from 1989 to 1996. While at PSU, he established a Summer Jazz Intensive program, in addition to performing, conducting workshops and attending residencies at Wesleyan University ,

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204-638: The jazz club Lighthouse Café , in Hermosa Beach . Hill first recorded as a sideman in 1954, but his reputation was made by his Blue Note recordings as leader from 1963 to 1970, which featured several other important post-bop musicians including Joe Chambers , Richard Davis , Eric Dolphy , Bobby Hutcherson , Joe Henderson , Freddie Hubbard , Elvin Jones , Woody Shaw , Tony Williams , and John Gilmore . Hill also played on albums by Henderson, Hutcherson, and Hank Mobley . His compositions accounted for three of

221-505: The last years of his life. He died at his home in Jersey City, New Jersey. In May 2007, he became the first person to receive a posthumous honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music . Hill's main influences were pianists Thelonious Monk , Bud Powell and Art Tatum . "Monk's like Ravel and Debussy to me, in that he put a lot of personality into his playing [...] it's the personality of music which makes it, finally," he said in

238-439: The next few years, the piano gigs brought him into contact with many musicians, some of whom became relevant influences: Joe Segal and Barry Harris , among others. In 1961, after travelling as an accompanist for Dinah Washington , the young pianist settled in New York City in 1961, where he worked for Johnny Hartman and Al Hibbler , then briefly moved to Los Angeles County , where he worked with Roland Kirk 's quartet and at

255-406: The opener, "Catta", is the most conventional piece on the album (as drummer Chambers said in the liner notes; "conventional?"). "Idle While" is a lyrical waltz provided by Chambers. "Les Noirs Marchent", meaning "The Blacks are marching" is a militaristic style song using collective improvisation. "Dialogue" is the most free in nature, with an ominous opening phrase played by Hutcherson , before

272-463: The others proceed to abandon the idea of a solo. "Ghetto Lights" was written whilst Bobby was at Hill 's house and was inspired by a tune played by Hill's wife, Laverne. As Hutcherson recounted, "some of her tunes had a real ghetto feel". "Jasper" was originally released on the 1968 record Spiral . The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded it the maximum four stars, as well as the special "crown" accolade in

289-611: The time an organist at the Red Carpet. They married in 1963 and moved to New York. Laverne died following a long illness in California , where the couple had settled, in 1989. He married dancer/educator Joanne Robinson Hill in Portland in 1992. They moved to New York City in 1995. From 2000, Hill and his wife lived in Jersey City, New Jersey . Andrew Hill suffered from lung cancer during

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