Piano | 1931–2007

Hill's piano style sits at an angle to almost everything around it: post-bop in its harmonic depth, but structured in a way that resists the head-solo-head conventions of the form. He grew up in Chicago, studied composition with Paul Hindemith in the early 1950s, and moved to New York in 1961 before being signed to Blue Note by Alfred Lion two years later. The run of albums he recorded for the label between 1963 and 1966 is one of the most concentrated creative periods in post-bop: "Black Fire" (1963) with Joe Henderson and Roy Haynes, "Judgement" (1964) with Bobby Hutcherson and Elvin Jones, and "Point of Departure" (1964) with Eric Dolphy, Kenny Dorham, Joe Henderson, Richard Davis, and Tony Williams. That last record is the one collectors reach for first. Hill stepped back from recording through much of the following two decades, then returned to prominence in the early 2000s with a run of albums for Palmetto and a final Blue Note record, "Time Lines", in 2006.