Alex Hill (musician)

Alexander "Alex" Hill ( born April 19, 1906 in Little Rock, Arkansas; † February 1, 1937 ) was an American jazz pianist and arranger.

Life and work

Hill was a child prodigy on the piano, the game he learned from his mother. During his student years at Shorter College he met Alphonse Trent know, for whom he was working as an arranger. He graduated in 1922 and then played in various territory bands, such as the Terrence Holder. From 1924 to 1926 he led his own ensemble; In 1926 he worked at Speed ​​Webb; In 1927 he was a member of Mutt Carey's Jeffersonians and Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders.

The end of 1927 he moved to Chicago, where he worked as an arranger for the Melrose Music Publishing Company; next he arranged for the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra. In 1928 he played with Jimmy Wade, then at Junie Cobb, Jimmie Noone, Jabbo Smith ( 1929) and Sammy Stewart ( 1930). In March 1929, he took under his own name on the title " Tack Head Blues " and " Stompin ' em Down ".

While touring with Stewart in 1930 he came to New York City, where he. Arranger for Paul Whiteman, Benny Carter, Claude Hopkins, Andy Kirk, Ina Ray Hutton, which was Mills Blue Rhythm Band and Duke Ellington worked He worked in addition also for Louis Armstrong's Savoy Ballroom Five ( " Beau Koo Jack", 1928), Fats Waller, Eddie Condon, Mezz Mezzrow and Willie Bryant as well as an arranger for Mills Music Company. Together with Fats Waller, he organized in New York in 1931 and was the show Hello sideman for Adelaide Hall.

Hill was then in 1935 a separate group with which recordings were also ( " Functionizin ' ," " Is not It Nice" ); he dissolved the group but after performances at the Savoy Ballroom again, when he fell ill with tuberculosis. He returned to his hometown of Little Rock, where he died in 1937 at the age of thirty.

According to the authors John Jorgensen and Erik Wiedemann Hill was considered one of the most talented arrangers of his time, whose career ended prematurely, however. Rex Harris and Brian Rust designated him as one of the forgotten pianist in Barrelhouse Piano style but at the Chicago of the 1920s and 30s enjoyed a high reputation.

Disco Graphical Notes

• Alex Hill 1928-34 ( Timeless Records) with Albert Wynn, Jimmy Wade, Jimmie Noone, Junie Cobb, Eddie Condon and The Hokum Trio and eleven titles as a bandleader.