Search - Andrew Hill :: Grass Roots

You'll want to hear more, more, and even more........

Kevin W. Celebi | Greencastle, IN | 12/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a rather interesting group of musicians for several reasons:

1) Blue Note Records, in the late 60's, pressured even esoteric musicians like Andrew Hill to make it a bit more mainstream, for the sake of financial stability. Andrew Hill? Mainstream?

2) Lee Morgan, the veteran hardbopper of the 50's and 60's, was participating in the kind of music he supposedly wanted to play more often (or even chiefly) - the more modal, open-ended, freer jazz with less restriction on groove.

3) Booker Ervin was a perfect mix between the two styles of "out" and "in," having played with everyone from Mingus to Dexter Gordon.



So what gives? When you have these three musicians with different styles collaborating with the obligation of playing something for the audience, what prevails?



The result is Grass Roots, the album that will make you forget silence forever.



You get two jazz groups for the price of one! The first quintet featured comprises of Hill, Morgan, Ervin, Ron Carter, and Freddie Waits. The bonus group has the marvelous Woody Shaw, undiscovered Frank Mitchell, soulful guitarist Jimmy Ponder, Reggie Workman, and Idris Muhammad. The contrast between the groups is fascinating: the first group sounds much more relaxed, groovy, restrained, and emphasized on the melodies. The second group brings more energy, abstruseness, fiery improvisation, and tension in general. The result is an album that starts calmly and picks up in ferocity with time.



Andrew Hill, bless his soul, will be remembered as one of jazz's most profound composers. No other composer blends depth, memorable melodies, infinite springboards for improvisation, and inspiration in song, but Hill does. Listen to the loose title tune, which completely captures the album picture with a happily free feeling, all in the one chord change of Fsus4. Both takes of "Venture Inward" spiral OUTwards, and you can trust the melody to weave in and out of reality. "Soul Special" does exactly what it says, and "Mira" is a one-chord mambo-tinged tune that could go on forever if it wanted (I played this for over 20 minutes with my group a few weeks ago). "Bayou Red" builds in tension the more it progresses, perfectly wound up by its melody and tense chords. "MC" is an explosion of the avant garde with one of the best solos Woody Shaw has ever played, and "Love Nocturne" leaves the listener shaking with illumination.



It's one of the few albums that you can listen to five times a day and never tire of. I listen to this everyday during my work shift, and the opening bass riff of Grass Roots never ceases to enthrall. The melodies are just so fresh, and the improvisations hit the mind with power and delight. Grass Root rivals Hill's heralded masterpiece "Point of Departure" in that it doesn't betray the core of melody, while highlighting embellishments of these melodies that have never happened before, and, frankly, never will.



This album, part of Blue Note's "Connoisseur" series, is priced steeply. Even used copies are up there. At least its shining majesty is worth the price (and you can probably download it online for cheaper, anyway, since online downloads are becoming the next thing).



Some may find Ervin's superfluous playing a bit much, especially on the first track. He blazes out of the gates with 32nd and 64th notes, obviously very excited to be at the record session. Since the album's concept was to emphasize accessibility and the mainstream audience, Lee Morgan has to remind him of this by taking his last lick and playing it over and over again, calmly and plaintively.



This album is one of the most overlooked in the history of Blue Note and jazz in general, and continues to get passed over for either the funk records of the 60's or the completely "out" stuff such as that by Ornette Coleman and Sam Rivers. It's a shame that the music that Hill generated, which was so hauntingly unique in its essence, combining his forward-thinking harmonic and melodic mind with the basis of improvisation, isn't revered more. I can't think of any records that match its unique beauty except for more Andrew Hill records.



Lee Morgan was bleeding profusely out of his teeth when this session was cut. There are two disputing reports of this injury's cause - a "swimming accident," or his teeth were knocked out by a demanding drug dealer (now which do you think it was?). Either way, his teeth were wired and Hill lauded his bravery in continuing to play to the best of his ability. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise, as this album boasts Morgan's most mature, graceful, and concise musicality of his career. If it were recorded 10 years earlier, half of his playing would be up an octave and twice as fast.



These two quintets are presented out of order. The second recording session actually took place 4/19/1968, before the other one. The music was cerebral and amazingly unique, but evidently not "mainstream" enough to be released. Therefore, Hill called in some more "mainstream" musicians such as Morgan and Ervin to the studios on 8/05/1968 to dumb it down. Somehow, the music maintained its singular sheen and still was as intelligent as Hill wanted it to be.



The second quintet gets the edge in improvisation, mainly because of the superb chops and harmonic dexterity of Shaw (only 24 at this time) and the daredevil-approach by Mitchell, who seems to have been listening to Wayne Shorter religiously. The first group presents the better ambience, since their emphasis on melody and terseness changes the room the music is being played in into a realm of active placidness. So which group is better? That's for you to decide.



The best track is Venture Inward (second group's interpretation, or "first version"). Listen to the way Shaw will hit his unique note (usually 4ths and 2nds), hang on it, and add a bit of vibrato to add emphasis. This track's power is very great, and evokes the ancient streets of New Orleans in its freedom of improvisation.



Many tales have been told about jazz's need to embrace the intellect while striking the smallest child to the busiest businessman right in the soul. Not enough tales are told about Grass Roots, which deviates from the customary late 60's fare and gives you no option but to hark.

"