Spiraling into Andrew Hill's Universe
Andrew Hill refuses to play it safe, building dense piano architectures that feel genuinely unpredictable.
Andrew Hill was always an outlier in jazz piano, and Andrew!!! (1960) announces that fact with zero apology. This is early in his recording career, yet he arrives fully formed—not as a disciple of anyone else, but as someone who heard the same bebop language everyone else did and decided to rebuild it from scratch. The exclamation points in the title aren't hype; they're more like a dare.
What hits you immediately is how busy and angular his piano playing is. Hill piles clusters and dissonant voicings on top of rushing single-note lines, creating this restless energy that makes the music feel like it's constantly folding in on itself. The rhythm section pushes and pulls rather than locks into steady time, which should feel chaotic but instead feels deliberate—like everyone in the room knows something you don't yet. This isn't background music for thinking about other things. It demands your attention because the conversations happening between the instruments are genuinely strange and rewarding.
This record matters because it's Hill doing Hill before anyone else decided what a pianist should sound like or what his music was supposed to accomplish. Compared to his later work, this has a rawer, more exploratory quality—less polished but more dangerous. If you're coming to Hill's music for the first time, you might want to start here, though be warned that his music never becomes simple or comfortable. This is a pianist who believed jazz could be difficult and beautiful at the same time, and Andrew!!! (1960) is where he proves it.
Who's playing
Richard Davisdouble bass
Andrew Hillpiano
John Gilmoretenor saxophone
Joe Chambersdrums
Bobby Hutchersonvibraphone
Where next?
More by Andrew Hill
All 13 albums →
The musicians on this record
Dialogue 1965
Bobby Hutcherson
plays vibraphone here
plays vibraphone here
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The Almoravid 1974
Joe Chambers
plays drums (drum set) here
plays drums (drum set) here
