Andrew Hill - Nefertiti (1976)

One of the most mindless quirks of some jazz listeners is major label prejudice. Take for example those vaguely familiar with pianist Andrew Hill's albums 'Blue Black' and 'Nefertiti', both recorded for the semi-obscure East Wind label, an imprint only in existence from 1974-77. If you have most of Hill's Blue Note albums and some of his more recent output and feel that is most of what is worth hearing, are you ever wrong. These albums are stunning. They can almost be considered companion pieces, each different enough in its own right to justify owning the pair. Nefertiti is a trio done two years later after 'Blue Black'. It has Roger Blank (drums) and Hill's most frequent bassist, Richard Davis. It starts out with the song "Blue Black", oddly enough nothing to do with the title cut of the other disc, Hill starting with a simple figure based on a scale. After about six and a half minutes, just when you think he's wrung all he can out of it, the rhythm section comes in, hard. On this and every other piece, the band plays together with stunning creativity and empathy. Hill has great energy throughout and a beautifully fat, full tone. Other high points include Davis' gorgeously imaginative arco work on the title cut and Blank's anomalous drum pattern on "Mudflower. This album is not only highly entertaining, but continue to fascinate with repeated listenings. ~ Extract by Kevin Ray, AAJ. 

East Wind, EW-8032, 1976
Inner City Records, IC 6022, 1979
East Wind, UCCJ-9162, 2015
Recorded 25th January, 1976 at Vanguard's 23rd Street Studios, New York 

Musicians:
Andrew Hill - Piano
Richard Davis - Bass
Roger Blank - Drums 

Tracks:
1. Blue Black (14:10)
2. Relativity (5:29)
3. Nefertiti (8:08)
4. Hattie (3:47)
5. Mudflower (7:32)
6. Unnatural Man (3:23) 

All Compositions by Andrew Hill 

Total Time: 42:31 

Credits:
Producer - David Baker
Executive-Producer [1976] - Toshinari Koinuma
Executive-Producer [2002] - Hirotoshi Nabetani
Supervisor - Kiyoshi Itoh, Yasohachi Itoh
Mastering - Hideaki Nishimura
Mastering Supervisor - Kikuo Niikura
Photography [Back] - Tadayuki Naitoh
Photography [Front] - Shinya Fujiwara
Design - Eiko Ishioka, Motoko Naruse
Liner Notes - Kazunori Harada 

Nefertiti