Idris Muhammad only recorded one date with the great pianist/composer/teacher Andrew Hill (last heard from on Jazz Impressions on Bobby Hutcherson’s Dialogue (1965)) and it nearly never saw the light of day. Many of Hill’s 1960s Blue Note recordings were shelved by the commercially-minded Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, and although 1968’s Grass Roots was released at the time, a “first draft” recorded 4 months earlier sat in the vaults until the CD release in 2000. The quality of these unissued sessions tells you as much about Blue Note as the albums they actually released, if not more.
The track ‘MC’ is a fine example, perfectly demonstrating Hill’s lopsided, cerebral style. The Penguin Jazz Guide notes: “Hill always sounds torn between cultures – on the one hand analytical, on the other powerfully visceral.” A unique voice in jazz, the pianist claimed for years to have been born in Haiti to help him get gigs. “People looked at jazz music as exotic and pretending you came from Haiti helped,” he told The Independent in 2003. In reality he was born in Chicago, making his debut with Charlie Parker at the age of 14, before moving to New York, where he gave piano lessons to fellow Chicagoan Herbie Hancock.
Following his avant-garde classic Point of Departure (1964), Blue Note started sitting on Hill’s challenging output, seeking instead a follow-up to trumpeter Lee Morgan’s mega-hit The Sidewinder (1964). Proving himself more than capable of writing a catchy hook (and apparently frustrated over finding players who could properly realise his music), Hill penned the infectious ‘The Rumproller’ for Morgan in 1965. Blue Note welcomed this more groove-oriented Andrew Hill for the wonderful Grass Roots, a soulful quintet record that Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls “the best of both worlds… accessible, just like Blue Note wanted, without compromising Hill’s integrity.”
The album’s heartwarming cover and title were inspired by a stroll through Central Park. “I saw some kids playing together in the park,” Hill tells Nat Hentoff. “They were of different races, but they were having a great time. There was no malice, no animosity among them. Where they were, the way they were acting, are to me the real roots of mankind.” Displaying great wisdom and foresight, he adds: “Human beings consider animals naive, but how naive we are! We are almost down to the question of the very survival of the human race and [we’re] totally immersed in the divisions between people.” The music reflects this optimistic yet self-reflective outlook, full of upbeat melodies and searching solos from the likes of Morgan and bass supremo Ron Carter.
But the earlier session features an entirely different lineup, with Muhammad on drums and Woody Shaw on trumpet. This sextet plays three of the songs that would appear on the album, adding the more adventurous ‘MC’ to the programme, presumably deemed too moody for the welcoming-sounding final set. ‘MC’ is a 12-bar blues, turned on its head Andrew Hill style, replete with his distinctive overlapping rhythms, intriguing atonalities and a hard-edged Latin flavour. Muhammad plays a 6/8 beat over the 4/4 time signature, making the piece feel instantly off-kilter, while Hill solos like a more chaotic version of Thelonious Monk. This is how I imagine the band playing on the Titanic as it was sinking probably sounded.
As always, don’t forget to check out our ‘Kings Of The Keys’ playlist for more legends of the piano.
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