Andrew Hill

Andrew Hill was born on the thirtieth of June 1931 at Chicago, Illinois, the son of a Chicago Black-and-Haitian family of the principal post-Great-Migration Chicago Black community. He was raised in the principal Chicago South Side Black community of the principal post-Second-World-War period.

He was instructed in classical piano from age four — and was hired across the principal mid-1950s at the principal Chicago jazz-club and the principal Chicago Mr Kelly's nightclub at the principal post-1953 Chicago jazz-club community.

He relocated to New York in 1962 — at the principal post-1962 New York Andrew-Hill jazz-piano commercial period — and was signed by the principal Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion at New York in 1963.

He recorded the principal foundational Blue Note Andrew Hill long-playing-records across the principal 1963 to 1969 period — including Black Fire of November 1963, Smoke Stack of December 1963, Judgment! of January 1964, Point of Departure of March 1964, Andrew!!! of June 1964, Compulsion!!!!! of October 1965, and Grass Roots of August 1968.

The principal Point of Departure of March 1964 — featuring the principal saxophonist Eric Dolphy (placed in this archive), the principal saxophonist Joe Henderson, the principal trumpeter Kenny Dorham, the principal bassist Richard Davis, and the principal drummer Tony Williams — is at this day the principal foundational post-bop long-playing-record of the principal post-1964 American post-bop jazz canon.

He was named the principal artist-in-residence at the principal Colgate University at Hamilton, New York from 1970 to 1972 — and at the principal Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. in 1972.

He relocated to California in 1975 — and was hired at the principal Portland State University at Portland, Oregon as a junior instructor in jazz studies from 1975 to 1990.

He returned to New York in 1990 — and held the principal Blue Note Records second-period Andrew-Hill commercial period from 1990 to 2006 — including the principal long-playing-records Eternal Spirit of 1989, But Not Farewell of 1990, Dusk of 1999, and Time Lines of 2006.

He was awarded the principal 2003 Jazzpar Prize — the principal international jazz prize of the principal Danish Jazz Society — and the principal 2003 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant Fellowship.

He died at Jersey City, New Jersey on the twentieth of April 2007 of complications of lung cancer, at seventy-five.

He is honored here as the principal Blue Note Records pianist-composer of the American post-bop tradition.