Andrew Hill gestorben

I've been asked by composer and pianist Andrew Hill's family to  
announce to the press that he died at 4 a.m. today, April 20, 2007,  
several years after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He was 75 years  
old and lived in Jersey City, NJ.

  Hill, born June 30, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois (contrary to some  
previously published places and dates dates), had a lengthy  
international career as performer and recording artist, and educator  
(at Portland State University; he also gave master classes at New  
York University, and elsewhere; he leaves a voluminous and highly  
varied recorded legacy, dating from the 1950s (So In Love) to his  
2006  trio album Time Lines (Blue Note), named to many critics' top  
ten lists. Hill is survived by his wife Joanne Robinson Hill, and a  
neice, nephew and cousin, besides a devoted coterie of friends,  
typically creative artists and perceptive fans.

As announced on April 11, Andrew Hill will receive an honorary  
doctorate of music degree from Berklee College of Music at  
commencement May 12; other honorees "for their achievements in the  
world of music, and for their enduring contributions to American and  
international culture" this year are Gloria and Emilio Estefan, and  
The Edge; this distinction has perviously been extended to Duke  
Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Quincy Jones and Ahmet  
Ertegun, among a few others. A press release from Berklee can be  
obtained from Allen Bush, Office of Public Information, 617-747-2658  
or at the school's website.

On April 3, 2007 Boosey & Hawkes music publishers announced the  
addition of Andrew Hill "to its distinguished roster of composers"  
whose works will be promulgated through its auspices. For information  
on that agreement, contact Adina Williams, via the B&H jazz page at  
www.boosey.com.jazz .

  Andrew was voted Jazz Composer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists  
Association four times, most recently in 2006; he received the 2003  
JazzPar Award, and was one of the first to receive a Doris Duke  
Foundation Award for jazz composers. His recordings have been on Blue  
Note, Mosaic, Palmetto and Black Saint/Soul Note, among other labels.


Howard Mandel
 

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