Andrew Hill's Careful Leap Into the Unknown
Six musicians working without a net, finding strange beauty in structures that refuse to sit still.
Point of Departure is Andrew Hill doing something genuinely risky. Recorded in 1964, this sextet session pairs Hill's angular piano writing with musicians who could handle unorthodox material without getting lost. Eric Dolphy on alto, Joe Henderson on tenor, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Richard Davis on bass, and Tony Williams on drums — this is a heavyweight lineup, and they're not here to play it safe.
The album sits right at a fork in Hill's path. His earlier work leaned harder into conventional changes; here, the compositions are more geometric, more willing to let silence do work. The tunes don't swing in the traditional sense so much as they accumulate tension and release it sideways. Hill wasn't inventing free jazz — the music has structure, even rigorous structure — but he was asking his musicians to rethink where a melody could go and when it needed to breathe. Dolphy, especially, thrives in this space. He was always comfortable with the unexpected, and here he gets compositions that meet him halfway.
If you're coming to Hill fresh, this isn't where to start. Try Black Fire (1963) first if you want something more accessible. Point of Departure is essential if you're serious about understanding where jazz composition was heading in the mid-1960s, but it demands your full attention. The pay-off is real though — a record that sounds like six people thinking hard about sound itself, not trying to prove anything, just working the problem. That's the whole appeal.
Who's playing
Richard Davisdouble bass
Eric Dolphyalto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute
Andrew Hillpiano
Joe Hendersontenor saxophone
Kenny Dorhamtrumpet
Tony Williamsdrums
Where next?
More by Andrew Hill
All 13 albums →
The musicians on this record
Out to Lunch 1964
Eric Dolphy
plays alto saxophone here
plays alto saxophone here
Page One 1963
Joe Henderson
plays tenor saxophone here
plays tenor saxophone here
Una más (One More Time) 1964
Kenny Dorham
plays trumpet here
plays trumpet here
The Joy of Flying 1965
Tony Williams
plays drums (drum set) here
plays drums (drum set) here
