Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Andrew Hill

Andrew!!!

1968 · Blue Note BST 84203 · Stereo · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Blue Note
Catalogue number	BST 84203
Year	1968
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Avant-Garde/Post-Bop
Producer	Alfred Lion
Musicians	John Gilmore (tenor sax), Bobby Hutcherson (vibraphone), Andrew Hill (piano), Richard Davis (bass), Joe Chambers (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  BNST-84203-1
Side B:  BNST-84203-B

Condition

Cover: NM-
Vinyl: NM-

Variant chronology

1968 - US Blue Note BLP 4203, mono, promo-only pressing
1968 - US Blue Note BST 84203, stereo, Van Gelder-stamped, All Disc pressing  <- this copy
1968 - US Blue Note BST 84203, stereo, pressing without a Van Gelder stamp
1968 - Germany Blue Note BST 84 203 K, repress
1968 - Japan Blue Note BST 84203 / BST 4203
1970 - US Blue Note BST 84203, stereo reissue
2025 - Worldwide Blue Note BST 84203, 180-gram stereo reissue

This Pressing

1968 US stereo pressing (Blue Note BST 84203) - Liberty-era label, Van Gelder-cut lacquer, pressed by All Disc.

The Album

Recorded in June 1964 during the extraordinarily fertile stretch that produced most of Andrew Hill's classic Blue Note sessions, this date brought together a quintet built around the elastic rhythmic pairing of bassist Richard Davis and drummer Joe Chambers, with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson adding a shimmering harmonic layer and tenor saxophonist John Gilmore - on loan from Sun Ra's Arkestra - contributing a burning, angular voice rarely heard outside that context. Hill, a self-taught pianist-composer who arrived at Blue Note in 1963 after stints accompanying Dinah Washington and absorbing both bebop and the freer language of the new jazz, used the session to push his compositions - with titles like 'Duplicity' and 'Symmetry' hinting at the structural puzzles inside them - into some of his most abstract and intervallic writing. The album's original liner notes drew an explicit comparison to Thelonious Monk, another deeply original composer-pianist whose music took years to find a wide audience. Despite the strength of the material, Blue Note shelved the session for years, releasing it only in 1968 as the label's ownership and roster were shifting; it stands as one of several Hill dates held back during this period, underscoring how far ahead of commercial taste his writing had moved. Critically, the record has come to be regarded as a key document of Hill's mid-1960s creative peak, prized by collectors and historians for the way it extends the rhythmic and harmonic innovations of his more celebrated 'Point of Departure' and 'Black Fire' into even more oblique territory. Hill's reputation as one of the era's most searching and under-recognized composers rests substantially on sessions like this one.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. The Groits
2. Black Monday
3. Duplicity

Side 2

1. Le Serpent Qui Danse
2. No Doubt
3. Symmetry

The Label

The labels are white-ground with a solid blue left edge and bottom band, BLUE NOTE spelled in white capitals down the left side and across the bottom, and the rim reads 'BLUE NOTE RECORDS • A DIVISION OF LIBERTY RECORDS, INC.' - the design Blue Note used while under Liberty ownership, roughly 1966 through 1970. No deep groove is present on either side. This Liberty-era design is itself the album's original issue, since the session (recorded 1964) was not released until 1968, so this label places the copy among the earliest pressings of the title rather than a later reissue of an older design. A later Liberty/UA reissue from 1970 shares the same catalogue number but is distinguished by its stampers and runout details, not by a different label design.

Fidelity

The album was cut by Rudy Van Gelder directly from his original 1964 session tapes, and this stereo pressing represents the record's first appearance in any configuration, since Blue Note held the session back until 1968. Collectors generally rate Van Gelder's own cuts of this era highly for their presence and tonal balance, though the All Disc pressing used for this run is considered a notch below the heavier, quieter vinyl of Blue Note's own earlier in-house pressings. There is no audiophile reissue series (Tone Poet, Music Matters, Classic Records) of this specific title to rank against, so this original stereo pressing sits at the top of the fidelity hierarchy for the album alongside the contemporaneous mono promo pressing, ahead of the 1970 reissue and the 2000s remastered CD.

Notes

This 1968 US stereo pressing of a 1964-recorded session carries the Blue Note/Liberty-era label (Blue Note Records, A Division of Liberty Records, Inc.), the design under which the title first reached the market. Neither label shows a deep groove, and both carry the standard blue-and-white Liberty-period design rather than an earlier New York or West 63rd Street design. The lacquer was cut at Van Gelder's studio, and the record was pressed by All Disc Records.

Documenting collections

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