CD Reviews

Andrew Hill

TIME LINES | Blue Note

By JON GARELICK | February 22, 2006

3.5 Stars

STILL PERFECT Andrew Hill delivers more of the same -- and it's beautiful.

Here’s the lyricism, the swing, the group interplay, and most of all the tension between form and freedom that’s made Hill a major figure for more than four decades. When he isn’t in free tempos, he likes odd meters. (The title tune is in 11/8.) His piano solos rarely progress with the fluid, silken lines of bebop, instead favoring broken staccato phrases with plenty of rests, letting the silence draw one note into the next. He pushes this free style about as far as it can go but never loses the groove (props to bassist John Hebert and drummer Eric McPherson) or the sense of narrative expectancy. Forms are articulated with perfectly balanced arrangements and textural variety. So “For Emilio” begins in ballad tempo with saxophonist Greg Tardy “doubling” on bass clarinet over free bass before the keening unison theme with trumpet (Charles Tolliver) enters. “Smooth” begins with a fast bass walk (a gallop really) over swing ride cymbal, then overlapping clarinet and trumpet lines. There’s even a tune in rondo form. “Malachi” (for the late bassist Malachi Favors) opens the album as a band piece and ends it as an elegiac piano solo. You could argue there’s nothing new here, but so what?

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Topics: CD Reviews , Charles Tolliver, Greg Tardy, Malachi Favors, More

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