Pianist and composer Andrew Hill has earned international respect for his original and unique music that can alternately sound dark, fragile, funny, unyielding, transparent and mysterious. He is known both as a talented avant-garde musician and as someone who is equally skilled at working with more traditional bebop in a very personal execution. The Chicago born Hill took his first accordion and tap dancing lessons at a young age. His talent became apparent early on and it didn't take that long before his commitment to music became professional. Hill's first performances were in '52, and a year later he was lucky enough to be allowed to accompany Charlie Parker during a show. After that Hill worked with big names like Dinah Washington, Coleman Hawkins and Rahsaan Roland Kirk until being signed on to Blue Note. In the sixties he made a whole series of beautiful albums (brought together in the box The Complete Blue Note Andrew Hill Sessions) for that label. From the early nineties on he worked regularly with innovator Greg Osby, on whose album he can be heard as well. On his most recent album Dusk, released on the progressive Palmetto label, Hill performs with musicians with a modern outlook, like Marty Ehrlich and Scott Colley.
