Ron Horton – A Prayer for Andrew
(Newvelle Records LP and digital. Album Review by Jon Turney)

The brief title track is a threnody by Ron Horton for Andrew Hill, the great composer and pianist whose first came to prominence in the 1960s. It introduces a superb selection of Hill’s distinctive compositions from a band perfectly suited to keeping his music alive. His career extended into the 21st century, which was long enough for several of the brilliant New York players here to get close to him. Horton himself played extensively with Hill, including appearing with the notable Anglo/US big band that performed in the UK in 2003, and reed player Marty Ehrlich also featured in Hill’s late ensembles.

Frank Kimbrough, alas also no longer with us, provides another vital link to the source of this music. As a keyboard player, he became devoted to Hill’s work and to the man himself, transcribed many of his compositions, and does them marvellous service here from the piano chair. And what varied compositions they are. By turns boppish, soulful, funky, and dramatic, full of ear-catching melody and idiosyncratic movement.

It’s clear this is no casual affair: the players know these pieces intimately and mine them for deep feeling. Ehrlich has a trio of alto sax features and a splendid bass clarinet ballad excursion on Bellezza #1. John O’Gallagher shines on alto on the other cuts, and Horton’s supple trumpet and flugelhorn playing threads through the entire session. His own ballad meditation on Erato is memorably beautiful and his flugel feature on Home enriches the mood of the tune immeasurably. Kimbrough contributes piano parts that meet the eclectic demands of Hill’s writing and then go further. The remaining players, Marc Mommaas on tenor sax, Dean Johnson on bass and Tim Horner, drums, round out a formidable ensemble, who revel in the more sinuous feel of some of Hill’s later compositions, where the writing and sometimes the orchestration gets more complex, without losing the feeling of spontaneity he always conjured up.

The whole thing has the virtues of an earlier recording, by the Herbie Nichols Project, which also featured Tim Horner, Kimbrough and Horton, digging in to gorgeous compositions from another (even more) undersung figure. That one sounds as alive and compelling now as it did on release in 1999. A Prayer for Andrew has a similarly enduring feel.

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Hill may be having a moment – his first album for Blue Note appeared 60 years ago last month, and I wrote here recently about Nick Malcolm’s UK group who explore his compositions, along with those of Booker Little. We aren’t told why this recording has rested unheard since the studio sessions in 2016, but Newvelle have now done it proud with their luxury vinyl treatment for a double LP. However, if you’re an internet peasant, like your reviewer, you may also acquire it via Bandcamp, where it sounds pretty good to me.

Jon Turney writes about jazz, and other things, from Bristol. jonturney.wordpress.com and https://bsky.app/profile/jonturney.bsky.social

LINK: A Prayer for Andrew on Bandcamp