Buck Hill - Relax

Severn 39

Ask a Minneapolis passerby about Buck Hill and you will likely receive directions to a popular ski resort located just south of the city. Pose the same question at a venerable Washington, D.C. jazz club like Blues Alley and the reply will probably point to the Chocolate City’s most prized living saxophonist. Hill’s been in the game since the 1950s, but his recording career has been one of flurries of activity bracketed by depressing stretches of silence. His most renowned tenure was a quartet of albums cut for Steeplechase that also included his belated debut as a leader. A stint on Muse followed some six years later, but was similarly short-lived. Hill decided long ago to forego the national limelight and has instead eked out a career on sporadic local gigging and the occasional festival appearance. His elected provinciality hasn’t stopped the powers that be in D.C. from declaring a day in his honor.

Relax marks Hill’s first release since a difficult-to-find live date on the Maryland-based Jazzmont label in 2000. Several of his sidemen from that earlier venture rejoin him here, including John Ozment, trading his acoustic ivories for the warmly effusive tonalities of a Hammond organ, and drummer Jerry Jones. Guitarist Paul Pieper completes the quartet. The session is firmly rooted in the bop-based organ jazz celebrated on vinyl classics like Streetlights and Groovin’ with Jug. Hill’s tone and approach are markedly different from Lockjaw or Jug, with a lighter, less overtly emotion-saturated delivery and a limpid sound that makes even the shortest phrase sing. That’s not to say he isn’t able to caress and cajole a melodic line with the best as his superlative balladry on “Old Folks” amply indicates. Pieper’s picking is similarly geared towards unsoiled and agile articulation. His single note runs exude a healthy blues mien and exercise effective laidback logic on the trio of Miles tunes that round out the set’s selection of non-originals. Whether soloing or comping, Ozment shapes slippery cross patterns that accentuate the band’s strong collective sense of swing, his pedal bass lines supplying a plump and juicy bottom anchor at any speed. Jones’ stick play sustains a stalwart rhythmic presence without resorting to heavy-handedness and his keen conception of time keeps every track on an even keel.

This date is a compact profusely enjoyable chronicle of Hill’s faculties as an improviser. It’s also poof that at the advanced age of 79, his faculties and artistic integrity remain uncompromised. Another extended record label tenancy is long overdue. With luck, Severn will provide the home.

~ Derek Taylor