Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Andrew Hill: A Beautiful Day

266

Andrew Hill: A Beautiful Day

By

View read count
Andrew Hill: A Beautiful Day
Dusk was only the beginning to this part of the story...

I cannot listen to Andrew Hill’s new big band recording without thinking of him and his band as a relatively well-behaved Sam Rivers and the Rivbea Big Band. Of course, that horribly shortchanges the 65 year-old Chicago native who’s Palmetto debut, Dusk, was considered by many critics as the best jazz recording on the year. Add to that that Blue Note’s Alfred Lion considered Hill his last great protégé and that Hill produced several ground-breaking recordings for that label in the 1960s.

A Beautiful Day continues Hill exploration of ground-breaking jazz. Recorded during a January 24-26, 2002 stint at Birdland in New York City, A Beautiful Day showcases Hill really big band (16 pieces in all). The eight craggy compositions are Hill’s, filled with effervescence and bare restraint. Hill is the most effective guide for his own music and these performances come off perfectly. The band is made up of crack New York players, most with the same modern bent as Hill. Chief among these is drummer Nasheet Waits, Trumpeter Dave Ballou, and multireedist Mart Erhlich. Hill’s reemergence on Palmetto Records marks the welcome return of one of jazz music’s true geniuses.

Track Listing

Divine Revelation, Faded Beauty, Bellezza, 5 Mo, New Pinnochio, J Di, A Beautiful Day, 11/8.

Personnel

Aaron Stewart: tenor saxophone.

Album information

Title: A Beautiful Day | Year Released: 2002 | Record Label: Palmetto Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.