Rush: A Farewell to Kings

This is a bit contrarian, as the obvious first album to spotlight by the great Canadian trio, Rush, would be 1981's commercial breakthrough, Moving Pictures, while other hardcore fans would suggest 2112, the 1976 record that saved the band's flagging career.  Both are great records and there's much to be said about Hemispheres from 1978 and the 1980 follow-up, Permanent Waves, this latter was also considered for this post.

There's something about A Farewell to Kings, though, that strikes this listener as somewhat underappreciated and underrecognized because 2112 was such a major change in the fortunes of the band and then came the those albums that led up to the pinnacle of its success.  So, we'll get to those other great recordings, but give it a little love to the 1977 album, which may be best known for the 3-minute single, "Closer to the Heart," which set the table for future tunes like "Spirit of Radio," for example.

"Xanadu" also gets a good amount of attention, as it should, because the 11-minute song features the tight, intricate and superb musicianship for which Rush is renowned, while the title track begins with a sort of pastoral instrumental rumination and then turns into a crack hard rock tune with lyrics that appear to examine the hypocrisies and failings of civilization and implore listeners to "find the mins to lead us closer to the heart."

"Cinderella Man" is distinctive in that it was a rare Rush song the lyrics to which were not written by drummer Neal Peart, but by bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee, while "Madrigal," which instrumentally sounds as the title indicates, is an unusual love song.  Then comes "Cygnus X-1" and its "Book One—The Voyage" dealing with an ill-fated space expedition of the "Rocinante" (look up Don Quixote for that reference" as it approaches a black hole.  As an instrumental, it is a very impressive piece of work with all kinds of unexpected twists and turns by Peart, Lee and the great guitarist, Alex Lifeson.

As with much of so-called prog, Peart's lyrics, especially in these earlier recordings, tend to get skewered for their themes and wordiness and some also take issue with Lee's high-pitched vocals to claim that Rush was too pretentious and pompous.  For this listener, the focus is on the music as a whole, but, reading Peart's lyrics, it is clear that he took great care in his work, explored themes that are relevant and had a knack for crafting intricate stories.  Moreover, compared to most of their contemporaries, Rush was very down-to-earth and grounded and they kept the music honed to the power trio format, though the beginnings of the use of keyboards and synthesizers started around this time.

In any case, A Farewell to Kings is an excellent album, showing the rapid maturity of a band that, lambasted as they often were, made memorable and exciting music that holds up very well near a half-century later.

Andrew Hill: Black Fire

Andrew Hill (1931-2007) made his mark with Blue Note Records from this debut recorded in late 1963 and through a series of excellent albums that followed, such as Point of Departure and Judgment!, both of which have been featured here.  While there was a decided push towards so-called "free jazz" during that era, Hill, being a pianist, continued with the emphasis on modal music, working with chord changes and fairly standard rhythmic accompaniment.

Yet, he was an experimenter and explored harmony, rhythm and texture, while also displaying an incredible talent for composition and melody, even he never achieved the renown or sales of such jazz figures as Miles Davis or John Coltrane.  For Black Fire, he utilized another underappreciated player, the great Joe Henderson, who is usually seen, as Hill has been, as a hard bop tenor saxophonist, on his own albums and as an in-demand side player.

If anything, with Hill's compositions and complex comping with unusual chord structures, Henderson pushes his playing further "out" than he might otherwise have done and his keening, but tonally strong playing is uniformly excellent as he appears more than inspired.  Then, there's the masterful rhythm section of bassist Richard Davis, always solid and wide-ranging, and Roy Haynes, with that readily identifiable "spreading" sound.  Both of these masters recently left us, Davis in September 2023 and Haynes 14 months later, but they are phenomenal on this record (Haynes was a late replacement for the great Philly Joe Jones.)

As for Hill, his composing and playing are graceful, studied, mannered and, yet, still innovative and searching in a way that keeps the music tethered to traditional forms while pushing into areas that seek greater freedom for all involved.  A core element, for this untutored listener, is how tight this quartet is in working with the structures of the pieces, accompanying solos and then demonstrating their mastery in the ensemble playing as well as when they are featured.  Black Fire does have plenty of that and it never turns into an uncontrolled conflagration.