Burning Dervish

  Our very first guest review comes Josh Block, who caught a show last night at Kaufman Center that I was sad to miss...

"The most interesting Jazz program of the season isn’t happening at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, or at any other of the much flaunted, Marsalis-ordained venues hosted by Lincoln Center.

Rather, Reissue: Classic Recordings Live, the second installment of which occurred last night, is happening quietly around the corner, at the Kaufman Center.

‘Quietly’ also aptly describes the path to light traveled by Andrew Hill’s 2003 release, Passing Ships, performed last night in its entirety. Recorded in 1969, the session that was to become Passing Ships languished in obscurity, shelved alongside other dusty reels of Blue Note sessions not deemed ripe for release. It was revisited over the years by would-be cataloguists, but the date, featuring a nine-piece band – the largest for Hill at the time – was consistently deemed a mess. That is, until the realization that the reference reels only told part of the story. Only a fraction of the nonet was evident on the recording, the rest substituted by echoes and glaring gaps thanks to a faulty recording. When the original 8-track recordings were found, the session was rightly deemed a triumph – a declaration echoed by its audience upon its release.

Hill, a slight man with a voice that make Michael Jackon’s sound gruff, took the stage last night accompanied by a drummer, bass player and six collaborators armed with brass instruments of all flights. ‘Quiet’ would not be an apt description of the music they played.

After an initial performance by Hill’s trio (piano, drums, bass), in which the drummer, playing in a world of his own, focused his energies on perfecting a variety of Dave Chappelle “oh” faces and the bass player struggled to be heard, but, perhaps wasn’t worth the strain, the real show began.

The brass section lined the front of the stage, obscuring the bass player and drummer and leaving Hill off to the side. The nonet’s positioning spoke volumes of how the night would proceed. Before Hill could even take his place at the piano, he was up directing the band with arms outstretched above his head. Fingers wiggled, arms flailed, irises raced back and forth, the corners of Hill’s mouth undulated – leaving the crowd delighting equally in his smiles and frowns – and, both visibly and violently, Hill’s head shook from side to side. None of this was a meditation on the music. The band played adroitly, soaring the more vigorously Hill cast his shamanic motions in their direction, but rarely paling as he retreated to his own instrument.

The few keys Hill did stroke during the evening were lost to the horns, but Hill, clearly, triumphed last night as a composer and arranger. At the night’s close, applause drew Hill back onto the stage where he performed a short solo piece, but it was unnecessary. Hill had lead his big band through an ambitious group of arrangements recorded nearly 40 years ago – one that had been forgotten or simply never known by most, but over which Hill still held command. Hopefully the dust won’t settle again anytime soon around Passing Ships. Highly recommended.

Check out future performances ay Kaufman Center here."

Thanks Josh. I'm back tomorrow with more live MP3s...