Cheap Smoke Stack [Japan Bonus Tracks] (Music) (Andrew Hill) Price

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Customer Reviews of Smoke Stack [Japan Bonus Tracks]

Not For Everyone
Like McCoy Tyner, Cecil Taylor and Oscar Peterson, Andrew Hill plays the piano as if he has 20 fingers! On this recording he turns a trio into a quartet by having an additional bassist, Eddie Khan, join bassist Richard Davis and drummer Roy Haynes. Here are just some of the words I can think of to describe this music: dense, dark, swirling, complex, moody, angular, and evocative. I bought the original Blue Note LP when it first came out and listening to it as a kid way back then I was reminded of lonely New York City streets on gray rainy days. Listening to it now on CD my feelings haven't changed. No, this music is not for everyone, but it is music that, if it speaks to you, will really, really speak to you!

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A Classic Andrew Hill Blue Note Recording
"Smoke Stack" is a wonderful recording by Andrew Hill. What makes this recording particularly intriguing is the double bass lineup of Richard Davis and Eddie Khan. They work really well together to produce a variety of textures by keeping a solid pulse as well as using a bow to great effect, especially on the hauntingly beautiful "Wailing Wall." With two bass players and no horns in the group, the music has a slightly subdued tone. Hill's piano playing is excellent, and the tracks provide solid evidence of Hill's compositional genius. All of Hill's work on Blue Note are "desert island discs" and "Smoke Stack" is one of them.

This Japanese import is a 24 bit remaster by Rudy Van Gelder. For some reason, they have not released this domestically yet, so you have to pay the high import price to obtain it. I wish the Hill 60s Mosaic set were still around, but for unlucky chaps like me who became interested in Hill after it went OOP, we have to pay these insane import prices to get the music. The sound is fairly decent, though in general music sounds far more compressed and processed on CDs whenever it is compared to that on the original vinyl. (Because it is the dominant media--at least until they change it to something else in a couple years--the music industry has to perpetuate the myth that CDs provide the best sound quality available, which is not true. But that is another topic.) This RVG so-called remaster is no exception, but it is worth buying anyway because in addition to presenting the original album, the CD features alternate takes of "Smoke Stack," "The Day After," "Ode to Von," and "Not So."