"Andrew!" tonight on Night Lights

[ghost of miles]

This week on Night Lights it’s “Andrew!” as we mark the passing of jazz great Andrew Hill with a program featuring his early and mid-1960s Blue Note recordings. Hill, who died at the age of 75 on April 20, 2007, was a highly original pianist and composer who recorded a string of stunning albums for Blue Note in the short span of eight months, constructing his own musical universe, much like Blue Note predecessors Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. His compositions, which employed asymmetry, repeated phrases, and artful use of space, were challenging to play, but at Blue Note he found musicians who could rise to the level of his inventiveness. We’ll hear music from the LP many considered Hill’s masterpiece, Point of Departure, as well as Black Fire, Judgment, Andrew!, and Bobby Hutcherson’s album Dialogue. “Andrew!” airs Saturday, June 9 at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville. It airs Sunday evening at 10 p.m. EST on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio as well. The program will be posted by Tuesday morning in the Night Lights archives.

You can read (and hear) more about Andrew Hill here, and you can also see a video of his last performance at Trinity Church on March 29, 2007. Here, too, are appreciations of Hill’s music by bassist and musical colleague Richard Davis and Los Angeles jazz DJ and musician Kellen Yamanaka.

Edited June 10, 2007 by ghost of miles

[Rooster_Ties]

Thanks for including Dialogue in the proceedings. Certainly half an "Andrew Hill" album (at the very least), by any measure. (Or at least IMHO.)

[Big Al]

Another great show! Actually got to listen to one live for once (but only caught the last half-hour of it, from "Ghetto Lights" on).

Strange thing is, I have never liked POINT OF DEPARTURE before, and I've owned it in one form or another at least three times that I can think of. For some reason, hearing two tracks from that album tonight, and not being able to them as tracks from POD, it was like hearing them with brand new ears.... AND IT FINALLY CLICKED!!!!

So, yeah, I'll probably go out and get P.O.D., PAX, BLACK FIRE and COMPULSION in the next week or so. (I already have JUDGEMENT, so there. Nyah! Not to say I won't go and buy it again just because that's the kind of spell your show casts) I think I'm gonna start calling this the "Ghost Lights Effect:" the compulsion (ha ha) to go out and buy music on the basis of having heard it on Ghost's Night Lights program. Hell, David, y'oughta just get right on there at the beginning of the show and say, "Yes, and by the way Al Rearick, if you are listening tonight: let me provide you a shopping list of music you'll need to buy at the end of the show!" AFAIC, you're already saying it in so many words (and tunes)!

Edited June 10, 2007 by Big Al

[ghost of miles]

That's great, Big Al--I'm glad PoD clicked for you. It's always a boost to hear that a show inspired somebody to go out and buy a jazz CD... I'm lucky that I get to do this for a living.

"Andrew!" is now archived. BTW, we'll have a new website in another week or so, and I'll be able to make nearly all of the changes/additions myself, which should help a great deal.