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2008 NEA Jazz Master
Recognized by Blue Note Records' founder Alfred Lyon as his "last, great protégé," pianist Andrew Hill spent more than 40 years composing, performing, recording, and mentoring young musicians. Born in Chicago in 1931, Andrew Hill began teaching himself to play piano at age 10 and later was introduced by Bill Russo to German composer and music theorist-in-exile Paul Hindemith. He began gigging in 1952, performing with touring jazz musicians, including Charlie Parker, Dinah Washington, Coleman Hawkins, and Miles Davis. He moved to New York in 1961 and shortly thereafter was contracted as a leader by Alfred Lyons at Blue Note Records producing his earliest classics for the label including Point of Departure. Hill's Blue Note sessions featured acclaimed musicians such as Eric Dolphy, Kenny Dorham, John Gilmore and NEA Jazz Masters Roy Haynes, Joe Henderson, and Elvin Jones. Hill also released albums in the 1970s and 80s on the Arista-Freedom and Black Saint/Soul labels, spending most of that time on the West Coast. At Colgate University of Hamilton, Hill served as the university's composer-in-residence from 1970-72. In California, he gave concerts and taught classes at public schools and social service institutions before becoming a tenure-track associate professor of music at Portland State University. There, he established the successful Summer Jazz Intensive. Other academic engagements include workshops and residencies at Wesleyan University, Harvard University, and Bennington College among others. He returned to New York City in the 1990s, reestablishing himself as a pianist, ensemble leader, and composer. In 2000, Hill released Dusk, a song cycle loosely based on Jean Toomer's book from the 1920s with yet another phenomenal band. The album brought him to the attention and garnered him acclaim from a larger jazz audience, claiming a place on best-album-of-the-year lists with Fortune Magazine, San Diego Union Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, JazzTimes, and Down Beat. The new attention led to reissues of his classic Blue Note recordings of the 1960s and new issues of some previously unreleased recordings from that time period. One of the most interesting was Passing Ships, a previously unknown nonet recording that prefaced his big band recording in 2002, A Beautiful Day, by more than 30 years. In 2003, he received the prestigious Danish award, the JazzPar Prize. After fighting lung cancer for many years, Hill succumbed to the disease in April 2007. He was notified of the NEA Jazz Masters award before his passing. < Back to Index of 2008 Recipients National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal
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