Andrew Hill's Electric Thrills
I missed pianist Andrew Hill's free concert in lower Manhattan's historic Trinity Church yesterday afternoon, alas. But I just discovered a wonderfully shot and recorded video steam of Hill's inspired hour here, so huzzah! My real consolation prize, though, was the first set of guitarist Nels Cline's two evenings at the Jazz Standard, where he's leading a sextet in raucously illuminating interpretations of Hill's music.
An undersung jazz giant, Andrew Hill released a beautiful album titled Time Lines on Blue Note last year as he was (and still is) battling cancer. Cline's quintet took apart, reassembled, and electrified Hill's often labyrinthine compositions. Cline is a contemporary guitar god, a longtime jazz experimentalist enjoying semipopular adulation as a recent addition to Jeff Tweedy's constantly evolving country-rock band, Wilco. Last night's band, an augmented version of the (strictly instrumental) Nels Cline Singers, added trumpeter Bobby Bradford, electronic accordionist Andrea Parkins, and clarinetist Ben Goldberg to Cline's usual rhythm section of bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola. You can hear them do what they do on New Monastery: A View Into the Music of Andrew Hill.
It was hard to tell when compositions ended and improvisation began, particularly since Cline had arranged several Hill tunes into long suites. Shards of Hill's melodies were passed between players like beautiful yet fractured balls of energy. The last of the set's three works, "McNeil Island"/"Pumpkin," worked up to a thoroughly rocking conclusion. It was Hill's music, alright, but it had never been played like this before.