Andrew Hill passed away today April 20, 2007. Peter Margasak has a nice piece about Hill’s life on his Chicago Reader blog called “Post No Bills.”
My first exposure to Hill’s music was instigated by a comment from Ed Petersen. I was taking composition lessons from Ed and he told me a piece I wrote sounded like something with an Andrew Hill vibe. I wasn’t very familiar with Andrew Hill’s music, so I bought Point of Departure. I liked it and more albums followed. I don’t know that I have written anything else reminiscent of Hill’s writing, but I sure have enjoyed listening to his music.