ANDREW HILL — Nefertiti (review)

ANDREW HILL — Nefertiti album cover Album · 1976 · Post Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Sean Trane
Returning to a trio format, AH’s Nefertiti album shows him taking an interest in Egypt’s mythology some 8 or 9 years after the Impulse!’s “New Thing” wave. The present album sees the reunion of Andrew with his long-time collaborator Richard Davis on bass and also sees Sun Ra & Sanders collab Roger blank on drums. Anyway with its “n’importe-quoi” artwork, the present album is a bit of a pot-pourri,

It would certainly appear to a casual observer that the album’s foundation would lay in the opening 14-mins Blue Black, but Andrew takes a lengthy piano solo Blue intro, and the band finally enters around the 7th minute mark. From that moment onwards it seems that Andrew is thinking of McCoy while playing this extremely interesting second Black half. Just how interesting is the rest of this A-side is a matter of Relativity, but holding the distance is another thing, with a dissonant piece.

Certainly the album’s highlight is the 8-mins title track opening the flipside, were Hill’s spine-tingling’s piano tinkling plays to some stunning Davis bowed bass, while Blank’s drumming is anything but so. After the short clunky and drummy Hattie, Mindflower is a bit disjointed, as if the trio was playing different tunes and the unremarkable closer is more or less in the same mould.

An average AH album, one that would pass unnoticed if there wasn’t the fantastic title track to pull it out of anonymity, Nerfetiti is not an essential listen if you want to explore Hill’s discography, but it can be a worthwhile detour, if only for two 8-minutes passages.

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