The pianist Andrew Hill’s 1968 album Andrew!!! is the latest entry in Blue Note Records’ Tone Poet series. This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Andrew!!! is the the latter of five remarkable albums the pianist made in a torrent of creativity in an eight month period between 1963 and 64. It features saxophonist John Gilmore (Sun Ra Arkestra), vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Joe Chambers performing six of Hill’s compositions.

Hill, who grew up in Chicago, began playing piano at the age of 13. He was mentored by pianist Earl Hines and jazz composer Bill Russo, introduced Hill to the renowned classical composer Paul Hindemith, with whom Hill studied from 1950-1952. As a teenager, Hill played with jazz musicians passing through the Midwest, including Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. In 1959, he recorded his first album, So in Love with the Sound of Andrew Hill, for the Warwick label.

Hill moved to New York in 1961 to collaborate with the singer Dinah Washington. He recorded several albums for Blue Note from 1963 to 1969, as both a leader and a sideman player. He received his doctorate from Colgate University and served as the school’s composer in residence from 1970-1972. Hill relocated to the West Coast in the ’70s and taught at public schools and prisons in California. He established a Summer Jazz Intensive at Portland State University, where he also taught. In the meantime, he continued to perform and record throughout the 1970s and ’80s.

Hill returned to the New York area in the ’90s and entered back into the jazz spotlight thanks to a series of performances and new recordings. His 1999 album Dusk was a critical success. In the early 2000s, Blue Note reissued several albums that Hill recorded in the ’60s, including 1969’s Passing Ships. Hill died in 2007 from lung cancer.

Buy Andrew Hill’s Andrew!!! on vinyl now.