Andrew Hill - Time Lines
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CD Details
Artist: Andrew HillEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2011-11-22
Music Label: Blue Note
Soundtracks:
- Malachi
- Time Lines
- Ry Round 1
- For Emilio
- Whitsuntide
- Smooth
- Ry Round 2
- Malachi (Solo Piano Version)
Music reviews of Time Lines
Music Review: A Modern Day Masterpiece
Rating: 5 Stars
"Time Lines" marks pianist and composer Andrew Hill's third association with the venerable Blue Note label. From 1963 to 1970 Blue Note released some of Hill's finest work, visionary albums that went on to influence an entire generation of forward-thinking improvisers. He returned briefly to Blue Note in 1989 to record two albums and is still performing. Now 68, his writing maintains the same unfettered expansiveness. Diagnosed with cancer in 2004, "Time Lines" is all the more impressive, not for Hill's encroaching mortality, but for his steadfastness in the face of it. There is optimism in the tone of this record, despite the inevitable.
Sublimely adventurous and hauntingly lyrical, these new tunes contain the same oblique sophistication as Hill's seminal Blue Note recordings. Trumpeter Charles Tolliver, noticeably absent from the recording studio for well over a decade, joins Hill's youthful quartet. Hill and Tolliver were last heard together on the recently reissued 1968 recording "Dance of Death," which in part prompted this reunion.
Drummer Eric McPherson, bassist John Hebert and multi-instrumentalist Greg Tardy constitute Hill's current working group. Though all three come from a younger generation, they obviously have Hill's music coursing through their veins.
Andrew Hill's writing employs a notoriously elastic sense of time which has always been demanding of his side-men. Rarely laying down a basic backbeat or groove, Hebert and McPherson navigate an endlessly modulating and circuitous path through fractured tempos. Free of clichéd devices, their abstruse accompaniment recalls focused collective improvisation more than conventional time-keeping. Such an open-ended concept allows a great deal of interpretive freedom for Hebert and McPherson, who prove they are up to the task.
Two takes of "Ry Round" aptly demonstrate Hill's idiosyncratic sensibility. The first version is reserved, ominous and brooding with brief shimmers of light. The second variation is quite different; same basic melody and similar rhythmic structure, but brighter, more lively, angular and edgy. The solos are more vivacious and expressive, the entire piece feels as though it could unravel at any moment.
The album vacillates between these extremes of light and shadow. This is enabled by Hill's choice of exceptional side-men. Initially appearing with Andrew Hill's sextet on 2000's "Dusk" (Palmetto), Greg Tardy's instrumental doubling adds a variety of tonal colors to the quintet. His tenor is burly and muscular, and past the hard-bop phrasing of his earlier efforts. His stuttered, emotionally wrenching climax on the title track proves he's absorbed the full tenor lineage, from Rollins and Coltrane to Lovano and beyond. Even more prominent is his fluid bass clarinet work. Gurgling and bellowing on "Ry Round 2" while displaying mature lyricism on "For Emilio," its presence invokes Hill's brief association with Eric Dolphy, if only conceptually. His most surprising contribution is his prodigious clarinet playing. His woody tone adds a refreshingly earthy aspect, as demonstrated by his gentle statements on "Malachi." Conversely, his passionate virtuosity on "Smooth," the album's most frenetic and sprightly track, belies the notion of it as merely another instrument in his arsenal.
Sharing the front-line with Tardy is legendary trumpeter Charles Tolliver. A seasoned stylist with a fat, buttery tone, his breathy, mellifluous statements on "Malachi" and "Whitsuntide" are as serene as his raspy, rugged solos on "For Emilio" and "Smooth" are assertive.
Hill's singular phrasing and sophisticated attack embody all the hallmarks of a master deconstructionist. His genteel, almost pastoral touch on the solo piano version of "Malachi" is revealing in its stark emotionalism. Equally, his irrepressibly abstract excursions in both versions of "Ry Round 1 and 2" are wholly unpredictable. Fragmented in tempo, and harmonically craggy on the first version, his solo on the second variation is even more intractable, yet still curiously melodic.
"Time Lines" proves Hill has lost none of his mettle in the ensuing decades. He deserves accolades for continuing to document a creative body of work that has never flagged in the face of commercial pressure or relative lack of economic opportunity. His life's-work is one of the key foundations of modern jazz. "Time Lines" is not merely a footnote, but a highlight to an already legendary discography. Highly recommended is not recommendation enough.
Description of Time Lines
Time Lines by Andrew HillThis product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
Time Lines marks the return to Blue Note of one of the label's great originals, with Hill retaining the edgy intensity that marked such '60s masterpieces as Black Fire and Judgment. As pianist, composer, and bandleader, Hill has a special talent for creating structural tensions that stimulate fresh improvisations. You hear it in the title track as saxophonist Greg Tardy and trumpeter Charles Tolliver (another veteran of the 1960s) weave through Hill's minefield of compound rhythms and dissonant chords to make their own powerful statements. Tardy's mastery of clarinet and bass clarinet adds to Hill's rich palette of instrumental colors, while bassist John Hebert and drummer Eric McPherson contribute to the dynamic flow of polyrhythms. Whether it's the joyous playfulness of "Smooth," the taut and spiky "Ry Round 1," or the welling emotional depths of the solo piano version of "Malachi," every track bears the stamp of Hill's creativity and commitment. --Stuart Broomer
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