Passing Ships

by Andrew Hill

Overview

Now this is more like it. In its Connoisseur Series, Blue Note is making available a completely unreleased Andrew Hill date from 1969. Passing Ships wasn't even included in the Mosaic box because the master tape wasn't found until 2001. The band Hill employed on this session was a nonet, featuring Woody Shaw and Dizzy Reece on trumpets, Joe Farrell on reeds, woodwinds, and English horn, Howard Johnson on tuba and bass clarinet, Ron Carter on bass, Lenny White (on only his second recording date) playing drums, trombonist Julian Priester, and French horn player Bob Northern. The music here is ambitious. Hill's scoring for one reed, two trumpets, and low brass is remarkable for the time. In fact, it isn't until his big-band album of 2002 that he ever ventured into these waters again. The title cut, with its bass clarinet and English horn counterpoint, is almost classical in structure but nearly Malian in melody. While the cut's dynamics are restrained, its color palette -- especially with the lilting muted trumpets playing a mysterious harmonic line -- is flush and royal. "Plantation Bag" is a showcase for Farrell's tough, grooved-out soloing as he blows blue and free in response to Hill's funky, large-spread chord voicings. The trumpets layer one another in the middle of the tune, alternately soloing and punching comp lines through the middle. The Asian melodic figures at the heart of "Noon Tide" add exoticism to one of the most adventurous tunes ever written by Hill. Rhythmically it turns on pulse rhythms that shift and slide methodically as Priester takes the tune's first solo, playing against Hill's left-hand stridency. Of the remaining three selections, "Cascade," with its staggered harmonic architecture that goes against all common wisdom for big-band harmony, is remarkable for its precision and rhythmic invention. Why this isn't going to be out there for the general public for all time is beyond reason. Why punish the artist that way? Conventional wisdom would suggest that something that has been unearthed for the first time in 34 years deserves to be a part of the general catalog. Get it quick. ~ Thom Jurek

Product Details

Release Date:	05/07/2021
Label:	Blue Note / Decca
UPC:	0602435148427

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Sideways
2. Passing Ships
3. Plantation Bag
4. Noon Tide
5. Brown Queen
6. Cascade
7. Tomorrow

Disc 2

8. Noon Tide
9. The Brown Queen

Disc 3

10. Cascade
11. Tomorrow

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Andrew Hill   Primary Artist,Piano
Lenny White   Guest Artist,Drums
Ron Carter   Guest Artist,Bass
Dizzy Reece   Guest Artist,Trumpet
Woody Shaw   Guest Artist,Trumpet
Joe Farrell   Guest Artist,Clarinet (Bass),Horn (English),Sax (Soprano),Flute (Alto),Sax (Tenor)
Howard Johnson   Tuba,Clarinet (Bass)
Julian Priester   Trombone
Robert Northern   French Horn

Technical Credits

Francis Wolff   Producer,Photography
Rudy Van Gelder   Engineer
Michael Cuscuna   Producer,Liner Notes
Patrick Roques   Design,Art Direction
Malcolm Addey   Remixing,Mastering
Andrew Hill   Composer