Andrew Hill

Judgment! is the third album Andrew Hill recorded for Blue Note in a burst of five months. The same run produced Black Fire, Smoke Stack and Point of Departure. It is a quartet record without horns, built on six of Hill's compositions with their irregular meters and angular themes. Some of his most playful inventions are among them.

Alfred Lion considered Hill as singular a pianist and composer as Thelonious Monk. He produced this session on January 8, 1964 at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, with Rudy Van Gelder at the controls. Bobby Hutcherson takes the front line on vibraphone, Richard Davis plays bass and Elvin Jones, on loan from Impulse!, plays drums. The album came out in September 1964, with liner notes by Leonard Feather.

The titles say a good deal about the music. Siete Ocho is named after its 7/8 meter. Flea Flop takes its name from an opening melody that suggests a jumping flea, and is dedicated to the hotels and motels where travelling sidemen stay. Yokada Yokada comes from Yakety Yak and refers to senseless dialogue between people. Alfred, the inquisitive ballad of the set, is a dedication to Lion, while the title piece was inspired by a poem by Hill's wife Lavern.

With vibraphone in place of a horn, the quartet sounds open, and every voice has room. Reviewing the album for All About Jazz, John Kelman pointed to Hill's jagged, irregular writing and shifting meters, likely disconcerting to a mainstream audience. In his view this helps explain why these records reached fewer listeners than Hutcherson's own. Reconciliation, which closes the record, is about the adjustment musicians make to find unity within a group.

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl edition is stereo and all-analogue, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.