Album of the week: Andrew Hill - Grass Roots

[JSngry]

You don't recognize Mark Furman and Rodney King?

[Rooster_Ties]

( )

[Big Al]

You don't recognize Mark Furman and Rodney King?

[jazzhound]

I was floored when I first heard the lp a couple of years ago. (and commented as such on the Blue Note board, remember that?)

And as often happens, when I checked the liner notes to see who had cooked up this different brew, Ron Carter's name was there.

[mikeweil]

I'm late on this, but the bass controversy in this thread made me curious and so I'm listening to this right now ...

It was my first or second Hill LP back then and the one that opened the door for his compositional talent for me. That's why it will always hold a special place in my heart. (The other was the One For One twofer.)

[mikeweil]

Re-listening with this thread in mind gives me the idea this was a mislead date similar to Herbie Hancock's unreleased first funk session of July 19, 1966. Not enough funk or soul in the groove. I think both rhyhthm sections fail in their own different ways. The earlier one is a little too straight soul jazz with Idris Muhammad and Jimmy Ponder (Is there any guitarist who could mesh with Andrew Hill ???), the second one is a jazz pack trying to stay in the pocket too much. The recipe was one more outrageous player (Workman and Waits, respectively) with more conventional section mates, perhaps with commercial considerations in mind - remember this was 1968 and jazz sales were not doing fine. Andrew Hill's Lion prescribed take on populat sounds? His Sidewinder? Morgan was on board for the second take ...

Wasn't that one of Alfred Lion's last productions?