3-58296-2

Andrew Hill - Pax

Released - 2006

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 10, 1965
Freddie Hubbard, cornet #1-5; Joe Henderson, tenor sax #1-5; Andrew Hill, piano; Richard Davis, bass; Joe Chambers, drums.

1518 tk.2 Euterpe (Intuition)
tk.4 Euterpe (Intuition) (alternate take)
1519 tk.6 Calliope (Deception)
1520 tk.7 Pax (Image Of Time)
1521 tk.8 Eris (Heritage)
1522 tk.10 Erato (Moon Chile)
1523 tk.11 Roots 'N' Herbs

See Also: BN-LA-459-H2

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images / 
https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/

Track Listing

Title	Author	Recording Date
Eris	Andrew Hill	February 10 1965
Pax	Andrew Hill	February 10 1965
Calliope	Andrew Hill	February 10 1965
Euterpe	Andrew Hill	February 10 1965
Erato	Andrew Hill	February 10 1965
Roots 'N' Herbs	Andrew Hill	February 10 1965
Euterpe (Alternate Take)	Andrew Hill	February 10 1965

Liner Notes

It is obvious by looking at the personnel on this record that this is one hell of a band.

But the music from this session, inexplicably, sat in the vaults for 10 years until the first five selections came out as part of a double album of unissued Hill material under the title One for One. Of all the Andrew Hill music sat on the at Blue Note, I'm most surprised that this one never came out at the time. It's rough in spots, but certainly stronger than other Hill albums that were issued in the late-sixties.

The telepathy and interplay among Hill, Richard Davis, and Joe Chambers throughout this date is quite amazing. Davis, a Fellow Chicagoan, had been on all of Andrew's previous dates and their chemistry is a thing to behold. At the time, Andrew told Nat Hentoff, "He's the greatest bass player in existence. Most good bass players have one good thing going for them. A man may walk With a good line, but his intonation may leave something to be desired. A very good bass player may have things going. He may have good intonation and walk well, if you ask him for octaves and double stops, technical limitations show up. Another bassist may read real good, but have no imagination. But Richard can do anything you demand of him. He has a lot of technique, but his technique does not overpower his imagination. So what I often do With him is write out what amounts to a piano part and let him pick out the notes he wants to use."

Joe Chambers, Blue Note's house drummer for so many of the cutting edge dates of the mid-sixties and a superb composer, made his first appearance with Andrew on Andrew!!! seven months earlier. He brings a composer's instincts to his drumming, which is melodic and dynamic. He can lay down the most hypnotic grooves, juggle complex meters and polyrhythms, and color the music with an extensive percussive palette.

Joe Henderson had an uncanny ability to realize Andrew's music (witness his on Black Fire and Point Of Departure). In fact it was Henderson's use of Andrew on his Our Thing session that brought the pianist/composer to the attention of Blue Note. Hill said in 1964, "We really enjoy playing together. Joe understands me and understand I Joe in the best possible way; that is, we know how to surprise and inspire each other."

This session was Freddie Hubbard's first encounter with Andrew and, as a creative virtuoso with a love for challenging music, he fits right in. Throughout, his solos are rich in ideas and exuberant in spirit. He is playing cornet, as he did a year earlier on Herbie Hancock's Empyrean Isles. Freddie would also contribute mightily to Andrew's Compulsion, recorded later in 1965.

"Eris" is a burning, contemporary mbar blues. Here everyone stretches out, but in the pocket. Check out Freddie's last chorus when Joe Chambers picks up on a down home gospel phrase that Hubbard plays and launches into a funk backbeat rhythm, joined immediately by that old rumproller Andrew Hill. These men are having fun.

Tax" sounds more plaintive than peaceful. The tune has 21 bars: ten of A, eight of B, and three of C. Henderson, Hubbard, and Hill take one chorus apiece.

"Calliope," a swinger in four, has a conventional melody, but unorthodox harmonies. The tune is eight bars of A, played wwice, and eight bars Of B. Everyone stretches out on this one; they stretch the time, too.

"Euterpe" is a great vehicle, with a 14-bar A section in fast 4/4, a 10-bar bridge in a Latin 12/8, and a repeat of the first seven bars of A. The master take is take two, which I selected at the time of release. I later found Alfred Lion's notes on the session; he had selected take four which we now call the alternate take. I still think the earlier take is better, especially for Freddie and Joe. Take four has a wonderful piano solo, a chorus shorter than the first, but Freddie's solo never catches fire like his earlier one and Joe seems unsure in his second chorus. The Latin bridges in both takes prove irresistible for Joe to insert of his favorite licks.

The last two tunes of the session are just trio. "Erato" is a ballad with the meter shifting between 7/4 and 3/4. Andrew is the only soloist. "Roots 'n' Herbs," which for some forgotten reason was not released with the rest of this material in 1975, is not to be confused with Wayne Shorter's "Roots and Herbs," recorded by Art Blakey in 1961. This odd piece starts out with the drums and bass in a kind of 8/8 pulse over which Andrew floats, working his way up to the theme. The rhythm shifts to 2/4, then free time, and finally a rock 'n' roll backbeat pattern with Andrew free-associating over it all. Fascinating, but quizzical.

This quintet with Sam Rivers in place of Henderson would reconvene two months later for Bobby Hutcherson's amazing Dialogue, which features the compositions of Hill and Chambers. And, of course, over the next few years, the creative lives of these men would crisscross and intersect at Rudy Van Gelder's studio and at various New York clubs (mostly Slug's Saloon) during one of the most exciting and fertile eras in jazz.

— Michael Cuscuna, 2006