Matt Square peg in a round hole might be the best description for Andrew Hill who in November 1963 recorded his Blue Note debut, "Black Fire" as leader. Andrew had previously recorded one back in Chicago in the late fifties, "So In Love With Andrew Hill" but that disappeared quickly. He also had already recorded on Blue Note as a sideman approximately 1 to 2 months before with Hank Mobley, "No Room For Squares" and Joe Henderson's "Our Thing" with also previous releases prior to Blue Note with Walt Dickerson, Rashaan Roland Kirk and Jimmy Woods from 1962 to 63 but although the piano playing from Andrew was great within all these albums they did not contain his take and vision in the music as Andrew Hill is best playing his compositions with his own arrangements which resulted in his unique take on Jazz. Complex, discordant, idiosyncratic, introspective but all within a controlled manner as everyone in the band had their part to play with the albums construction and execution. Andrew Hill's music is often considered to be Avante Garde but when one takes time to listen his compositions and arrangements which are often layered with each artist having their own space to fill and even when soloing there is usually other input from various band members but all under the control of Andrew's arrangements which is anything but free form. One thing though his music is not exactly Bop of any manner either as he did not play strictly to the usual approach in Bop of solo's that are taken individually in turn but the real difference is his chord patterns which are often unusual with irregular lengths inserted. When this album was recorded back in 1963 Avante Garde was fairly new Jazz for the time which is one of the reasons that he is often catergorized in this format and perhaps rightly so but although he does incorporate elements he seems to straddle somewhere between this and Bop which is where the appeal lays in his music being truly individual and unique.

Joe Henderson who also was a new man at the time is on tenor saxophone and you could not have picked a better man for the job with his high wailing tone that he could play and when one looks back on Joe's career he particapated in so many classic Blue Note sessions and although widely regarded as one the greats at his instrument one often feels he still should have even more recognition for his contribution in so many albums that today are considered Jazz masterpieces with "Idle Moments", "Sidewinder"," Song For My Father","Unity", "The Real McCoy" not to mention an appearance as well on Andrew's fourth Blue Note album, "Point Of Depature" with five of his own during the 4,000 series and another 17 as sideman with Blue Note and that was just the sixties for Joe. Richard Davis is playing bass for the first time with Andrew and this would not be his last with another five albums to come with Andrew Hill during the classic period at Blue Note and he could play any style of music from Avante Garde to Rock as in the future he would be plucking bass on Eric Dolphy's "Out To Lunch" and Bruce Springsteen's "Born To Run". Sometimes through bad luck the result can be the opposite as Philly Joe Jones was going to be doing the drumming but had to cancel due to other commitments with the job going to Roy Haynes instead and no offence to Philly but Roy with his all round experience at this time was a far better match in the albums formation and it does not hurt one bit having played with the likes of Thelonious Monk and Eric Dolphy's "Outward Bound" previously giving him with the the other musicians a grasp and understanding of Andrew Hill's take on Jazz.

"Pumpkin" is where it begins with Roy's cymbals work at the fore with Joe coming in on tenor with the theme and Andrew takes the first solo and listen to how he places those notes with the different timed stretches he inserts within the solo at various point throughout repeatedly with approx 5 to 7 notes as Andrew does not repeat his sequences and constant slight change is always apparent but he is playing his own role within the composition as contrast as well with a great solo from Roy on drums and a ripper as per usual from Joe Henderson on tenor where at the end he returns to the theme within this fairly up tempo composition. The following number is my favourite from the album and listen to Andrew's left hand which is repeatedly playing that theme he wrote whilst the right is soloing with beautiful results but the insertion of that sequence of notes from Andrew's left hand continues right throughout the composition in between Roy's drum solo and Richard Davis's bass bringing to the number a constant grasp of the structure with Joe Henderson not even present at all on this wonderful tune. Joe is back though on the album's title "Black Fire" with another extradonairy contribution but for me I just love Andrew's piano when he follows. Whilst listening to the music one should listen closely to the arrangements which are always beautifully constructed with variety always the key with a mix being often used within the bass and drum solos within the album and things never get boring. "Cantarnos" is Latin flavoured but with a touch of abstract to say the least but never to far out and it is a joy to hear Joe's solo but listen to Andrew in the background with his superb placing and spacing by just dropping in the odd notes and we still have not mentioned the absolute exquisite solo that he follows this up with. The rthymn section always works closely during the album bringing another texture to this beautiful Jazz album and "Tired Trade" which is next is just a trio with Joe omitted on tenor but the typical introspection that an Andrew Hill jazz album must contain would go to the albums second last track "McNeil Island" with Roy Haynes on drums omitted this time with just Andrew's piano, Joe's tenor and Richard on bass for this short dreamy piece. "Land of Nod" is the album's mid tempo closer with that introspection back and more exquisite placing and spacing from Andrew on piano within the tune. There are two alternate takes added to the cd being "Pumpkin" and "Black Fire" which were taken from the same session.

One of the reasons that I am a fan is the reason what do you call Andrew's take on Jazz maybe just original, will have to do. His first Blue Note album and one of his best and if you want something different as well as something that does require you to actually listen closely and work on, you will grow to love this album for simply whatever type of Jazz it is.

Sean Trane It is the JMA site’s categorising of Hill in the avant-garde “genre” (now readjusted) and two different discussions in its forum that pushed me to rediscover and, if need be, reassess my outlook of the Chicago-born pianist’s career. Indeed it seemed to me (and still is so) preposterous to call some artiste like Andrew Hill as avant-garde in 63 and link him to names like Cecil Taylor or Ornette Coleman and to a lesser extent Coltrane), when this album and the following ones were so “standard” (to me anyway) and didn’t seem to surpass much of the year 59’s most memorable works. Reading over the liner-notes of Hill’s debut Blue Note album (his second overall) that indeed shows how some of these genres can be screwed up and skew the historical appreciation of the different movements of certain musical genre. Indeed, Spellman’s notes directly call out for Andrew Hill as avant-garde with this album in mind, when Brubeck’s Time Out (from 59) was at least as adventurous and groundbreaking

So if the “avant-garde” is (or should be) groundbreaking, it’s not quite immediately obvious why Black Fire should be labelled as such, especially when comparing to Sun Ra or Coleman’s albums from that year, which were years ahead of many of these classic Hills or Don Byrd. The saying in French goes as: “une guerre de retard”, about the French digging trenches in preparation for the upcoming WW2, while the German tanks would plainly roll over the rabbit holes. As an aside, the Poles were not one, but two wars behind, as their cavalry committed suicide by charging the German tanks. Anyway with all due respect to Hill’s rather excellent but fairly-standard works, I’d tend to prefer much the post-bop “fourre-tout” (all-encompassing) label, rather than the now-misleading avant-garde moniker, because to be fair… avant-garde is one of the more overused, misused and clichéd label around, even if it was used back then. But in a historical context, I find AG to be wrong, because at one point or another in jazz’s history, Satchmo or Duke were also avant-garde.

Ok rants aside, let’s get to BF, which was a meriting (in the consolidation sense) album, but by no means as outstanding as the partisan scribbling on the sleeve’s back side (a big reason why I avoided reading them for decades), not least in its splendid line-up that includes Henderson on sax and Davis on bass. Ok, the counter-liner notes point out (rightly so) that the quartet sometimes chose to work as a trio (sometimes drum-less or sax-less), thus allowing for some kind of variety. I suppose it is so, but it’s really not fundamental or groundbreaking or even a real advantage in terms of musical spectrum. Andrew Hill’s splendid piano playing graces the entire album, but sometimes peaks almost wildly like on the 8-mins Subterfuge or Cantarnos, his works being reminiscent of Bud Powell, Hank Jones or to a lesser extent Thelo Monk. However, the title track or Tired Trade or the insignificant McNeil Island sound like barely-updated 50’s mainstream (not sure this is the right word) jazz.

Soooooo, if you’ll not agree with my opening rant on the present review, I guess you’ll probably not agree with many of my reviews of this following works, as I never considered Hill to be a groundbreaker or innovator, but more like a follower, consolidator or second-line (with all due respect) artiste, and the album being produced by the legendary Van Gelder and released on Blue note won’t change much to the issue. Don’t get me wrong though, this is still a good classic album (prefer it to PoD), but if you’re looking for something more than “nice”, like gut-wrenching or challenging, than you’d better head directly to Compulsion (his most-advanced) or look/listen elsewhere.