Bassist Hilliard Greene - official website
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Bassist Hilliard Greene - Reviews:
 Cadence Magazine
The Review of Jazz & Blues: Creative Improvised Music
Interview with Hill
Hilliard Greene Alone
With The Lenore Raphael Trio
Exuberance Review
Bobby Few & Avram Fefer Quartet Review
3:30 Reviews
With Patrick Brennan
Hill Greene Solo/Alone/Performance
New York bassist Hilliard Greene is no stranger to the New York jazz scene and has been an active studio or stage player for many years in the US with Jimmy Scott as well as the musical director of his backing band The Jazz Expressions. He has also played with luminaries such as Dave Douglas, Kenny Barron, Oliver Lake, Charles Gayle, Jack Walreth, Gloria Lynne and Rashied Ali and other international artists.
This eight track CD entitled 'Alone' is just that, Hilliard playing upright bass on his own to six self penned tracks and two covers of Stanley Clarke's 'Bass Folk Tune' and Ornette Coleman's 'Lonely Woman / Kum Ba Ya'.
This is a set of wonderfully played compositions which I think is targetted at bass players and jazz connoisseurs. Hilliard is obviously a master player of his instrument and the songs cover a number jazz sub genre's with influences from contemporary, Eastern, Latin and World styles. It is the sort of CD that you would play before a master bass class and say, "Here is the yardstick, now let's see what you've got".
I have a feeling that Hilliard is a deep and conscientious musician who has created his own nirvana to integrate into this entire project and whilst I don't think it will have a general appeal to many jazz fans, it is full of rhythmically succinct ideas and takes on a similar patina to many of the great bassists which have inspired him in the past and present such as Ron Carter, Paul Chambers, Michael Henderson, Dave Holland, Eddie Gomez, Stanley Clarke, Charles Mingus, Marcus Miller, Nathan East, Jaco Pastorius and will be essential listening for bass fans.
- Wes Gillespie, Euro Club de Jazz
"Hearing this album, we can all say we could just never have imagined the bass as a solo instrument that is wholly absorbing and wholly capable with sounds that show the artist knows jazz, classical, South American, and yes, even some colors of the Japanese koto. We can say he has reinvented the bass as a solo instrument. Hill takes center stage as a first class artist, Alone."
- James Forte - Wildflower Publishers
"OK, an unaccompanied solo in a tune is one thing. A whole concert - well, that's something else entirely. The thing is, Greene can keep the listener interested - very interested - for upwards of an hour, all by himself. His new album, ''Alone,'' is a riveting hour-plus of material, mostly originals, that stand up well as melodic compositions played with passionate dedication. There is a wide range of styles and forms, and there is no risk of boredom among the eight tunes."
- Steve Greenlee - Boston Globe
"Besides the exciting moving music, there is the amazement of the man's technique. He is a real virtuoso. Hearing this album, we can all say we could just never have imagined the bass as a solo instrument that is wholly absorbing..."
- James Forte, Wildflower Publishers
"For many decades the bass has ceased to be looked at as an accompaniment instrument entirely. At the same time, very few musicians dare to release solo bass recordings. Bassists like Dave Holland, Eberhard Weber, Barre Phillips and Miroslav Vitous have done that very successfully. Among those, we can add the name Hill Greene with his solo bass recording entitled "Alone". ... Even though the unique virtuosity of Hill Greene can capture the mind of the listener, what really sets him apart is his musicality, passion, and dedication to the art."
- Vangelis Aragiannis, Ipirotikos Agon - Athens, Greece
"Hill Greene created a resonating musicality, with full focus and emotional pathos... "The audience was still and enraptured, as Hill Greene is a musician to watch, as well as one to listen to."... Hill Greene has a bright future as Solo Bassist, Composer, Accompanist, and Music Director."
- Roberta Zlokower, RobertaOnTheArts.com (translation by Fernando Hernandez-Moros)
Greene, a bass concert player. Very good (4 stars)
Hilliard Greene is an expressive double-bass player with a solid technique...Greene made of his show at Notorious a concert of refreshing features, with fiery solos developed in an explosive way at times, ... His double-bass has the sonority like a guitar and continuity in his lines that seem to be pianistically inspired...A Strong presence...
... His language has in a way, a classical vocabulary that is at the same time deeply tied to the blues. There is in his music a strong conscience of the black tradition...
- Cesar Pardines - La Nacion; Buenos Aries, Argentina
"...Hilliard Greene...can sound like a flamenco guitar one moment and a wailing horn the next"
- Misha Berson, Seattle Times
...found a copy of your solo CD. I've been listening to it a great deal. It's exceptional, easily one of the best crafted solo bass CDs I've heard.
- Lou Kannenstine - Boxholder Records
"...(Greene's) work on the upright bass was diverse and committed. On the funk grooves, generally associated with the electric bass guitar, he was convincingly adept, wielding the larger instrument with ease. His solos, whether arco or pizzicato, used the full potential of the instrument, including choral effects and contrivances."
-Richard Mayer, Green Mountain Jazz Messenger
"Intense. Powerful. Versatile. Not for the faint-hearted. ...Hill Greene showed us how it's done"
-Bass World, Journal for the International Society of Bassists
"With a technical mastery of his instrument that is nothing short of astonishing he churned through a varied and creative set full of fire, brilliance and subtlety that above all never stopped swinging.
-Bobby Shropshire, Beach Nights Entertainment Magazine - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
"Technically and sonically, Greene's bass sounds great; his pitch is accurate even during highly technical passages played at breakneck speed, and his sound is deep and clean."
-John Kennedy - Double Bassist Magazine
"His fabulous arco bass mixes lyricism with a burning, literally ferocious desire of opening the listener's mind."
- Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, Italy
"Alone sounds like the culmination of one man's dedication to his instrument, the work of someone who has come a long way, and is determined to show what he can do. Classical melodies, Jazz and Folk music from around the world have been internalized by Greene who proves his talent for pizzicato and arco playing in an equal measure on unaccompanied double bass...Alone is music rooted in the human condition."
- Jeff Stockton - All About Jazz
HILLIARD GREENE - double bass
"His fabulous arco bass mixes lyricism with a burning, literally ferocious desire of opening the listener's mind."
- Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, Italy, january 2007
"I found his composition to be extraordinary in its depth of emotion. Hill's remarkable virtuosity and passion on his instrument and spiritual awareness was ever present throughout."
- Margot Elizabeth Meyers, Jazzimprov, 2006, NY, USA
Hill Greene dares to release solo bass recording
Vangelis Aragiannis bimonthly magazine "APOPSI"
(Point of View) and for the daily "Ipirotikos Agon"., Greece
For many decades the bass has ceased to be looked at as an accompaniment instrument entirely. At the same time, very few musicians dare to release solo bass recordings. Bassists like Dave Holland, Eberhard Weber, Barre Phillips and Miroslav Vitous have done that very successfully. Among those, we can add the name Hill Greene with his solo bass recording entitled "Alone".
The name Hill Greene is not that well-known even though he has played with people like Dave Douglas, Cecil Taylor, Jack Walrath, Charles Gayle and with the well-known crooner Jimmy Scott.
He has visited Greece twice to play at Half Note once with "Masters of Suspense" with Jack Walrath and with singer Pucci Jhones. In his personal career, he has released two albums as a leader of "Jazz Expressions" (the group which accompanies Jimmy Scott on his tours). Now he's adding the album alone.
"To play alone is my favorite mode of musical expression. It's risky and it needs huge effort, time, thought and practice" says Greene. Understandably, because it's not easy for one instrument, especially a monophonic instrument, to hold the interest of the listener for more than an hour. But Greene, playing with unbelievable technique, a unique passion and managing not to become monotonous since he changes moods and moves through different styles, holds undivided the attention of the listener from the beginning to the end of the album. When he's bowing, he plays with the clarity and the musicality of a cellist, and when he plays with fingers, he has a deep, warm and full-of-swing sound.
Bach
His love for the Bach Cello Suites becomes obvious in the way he arranges "Bass Folk Song" by Stanley Clarke, where he starts with melodic arco playing and develops into a recital of speed and virtuosity. He treats the second composition, "Lonely Woman", similarly. If one does not know this early piece by Ornette Coleman, which Greene combines with his own composition entitled "Kum Ba Ya" and becomes a twelve minute detailed study of the bass, one would certainly think that he has just heard a classical composition.
The same variety runs through the rest of the album which leads us from the bluesy feeling of "Home Health Aid" to the esoteric and classical mood of Iono", the folk atmosphere of "Juini", the meditative mood of "Yoyogi", the fiery speed of "Ode to A.B." and finally the detailed narration of the ballad "Samantha and Sluggo".
Even though the unique virtuosity of Hill Greene can capture the mind of the listener, what really sets him apart is his musicality, passion, and dedication to the art.
With The Lenore Raphael Trio
Lenore Raphael - Class Act, Live at Steinway Hall
Swingin' Fox Music P.O. Box 20941 Columbus Circle
Station New York, New York 10023
www.swinginfox.com.
One for the Byrd; Love for Sale; Speak Low; It Might as Well be Spring; I Thought About You; For Chet; Just You, Just Me; Anthropology.
PERSONNEL: Lenore Raphael, piano; Hilliard
Greene, bass; Rudy Lawless, drums
By Dave Miele
I admit that I had not heard of Lenore Raphael before her latest CD Class Act arrived in the mail for review. It has been my loss. Miss Raphael is a uniquely talented pianist and composer and her story is that of someone whose life has been devoted to music, jazz music in particular. Our art form needs more like Lenore for its continued survival. Raphael began her love affair with jazz by listening to and imitating her idols Art Tatum, Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson. She had been classically trained previously. She has earned a BA in Music Education, spent a year as house pianist at Gregory’s in New York City, written a jazz theory book and performed with such luminaries as Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry and Illinois Jacquet. Raphael has also organized a six week summer jazz workshop at Montclair State University and assembled a program for teaching the history of jazz to elementary students. Along the way, let’s not forget, she’s managed to release several CDs under her own name and maintain a working trio with bassist Hilliard Greene and drummer Rudy Lawless. Class Act is a fine representation of the fact that though Miss Raphael’s life has had much to do with music education and the furthering of the art of jazz, her music by no means takes second place to these activities.
The program consists mainly of standards, with two originals balancing the familiar material. One of these originals opens the disc. Entitled “One for the
Byrd”, this tune has a light, swingy melody. Raphael
has a quick, light touch that obviously references her aforementioned influences. Hilliard Greene is featured in a solo and Rudy Lawless trades fours with
Raphael. “Love for Sale” is handled as an unusually
funky bossa nova, with the feel shifting to swing during the bridges. Raphael’s comping and soloing is full of thick block chords on this tune, which she takes as a piano feature. “Speak Low” begins with a lush piano introduction and a rubato melody statement
before settling into a medium swing tempo. Piano and bass solos are followed by a round of trading (this time eights) with Lawless, whose playing is restrained
(it’s not the right word, he plays them masterfully) to brushes throughout the entire program. “It Might as Well be Spring” begins with a short piano intro which glides into a ballad tempo. The intensity rises during Raphael’s solo, as a gentle swing double time feel takes over. Greene’s solo returns to the relaxed ballad tempo, after which the melody returns.
The program continues with “I Thought About You”, which begins with a lavish piano introduction. The band enters with a relaxed swing feel. Raphael cascades up and down the keys, landing on key notes of the melody by sliding through several registers, then punctuating strongly with her left hand in the bass. This blend of power and grace adds to her Peterson-esque touch and facility with long flowing lines to produce the sound that is Lenore Raphael. Greene and Lawless are also featured (in solo and trading sections). The second original, “For Chet”, follows. The tune is a ballad played in an interactive Evans trio-ish style. “Just You, Just Me” features more of Raphael’s signature style, as she accentuates her phrases with more cascades of sound. Greene’s solo is of note on this track, which closes with another round of trading with Lawless. The program comes to an end with Charlie Parker’s “Anthropology”, a tour-de-force for the entire trio.
There’s no question that Lenore Raphael is a class act. With her achievements in the world of jazz education (about which I again can not overstate the importance) alone, she should feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment. To do all that and not lose sight of the music itself and the arts of composing and performing is a difficult task. Class Act shows that Lenore Raphael is surely up to that task.
Lenore Raphael Trio
After Hours Set
Lenore Raphael on Piano
Hilliard Greene on Bass
Rudy Lawless on Drums
At
Frederick P. Rose Hall
Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola
Broadway at 60th Street
NY, NY
212.258.9595
(Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola Website)
Todd Barkan, Artistic Administrator
Scott Thompson, Press
Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower
December 6, 2005
Once again, the vivacious Lenore Raphael, joined by her reliable and personable accompanists, Hilliard Greene on bass and Rudy Lawless on drums, took a one-week set at JALC’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola by storm. Jordine, by Duke Ellington, with a nice swing beat, opened the after-hours set, and Ms. Raphael built up to a luscious lead of flowing melodies. She and the band were relaxed and let loose on the Steinway. Ms. Raphael could fill a room with striking, familiar tunes, as she gave the piano vibrancy and verve. A bass and then a drum solo followed, with piano conversations mixed in. Have You Met Miss Jones, in a tribute to Rodgers and Hart, gave Hilliard’s bass some steady percussive roles, in combination with Rudy’s drums.
The natural and seasoned style of this trio combines traditional and contemporary sounds in listenable, danceable, and memorable riffs. The featured band conversations, sending a few notes back and forth, seemed to engage the trio in rapidly-timed exchanges. Invitation was esoteric and sultry, a Brazilian/Latin fusion with soulful bass solos and spirited percussive flourishes. Alone Together, with Hilliard’s lead and an abstract motif, brought fragments of the original theme into an interesting twist. If He Could See Me Now rapturous and melancholy, included rapid piano trills, as in an enchanting two-step dance. When Hilliard took one note to elongation, a chorus of sound emanated from the one buoyant bass.
Anthropology, a tribute to Charlie Parker, had foxtrot dance rhythms followed by hot, Savoy Swing. Rudy put pizzazz into his percussion, while Hilliard took the theme and made it skip through the strings, while Rudy brought the drums and cymbals into the mix. Ray Charles Georgia, an all too short finale, was an intoxicating interpretation of a renowned ballad.
Exuberance Review
Exuberance
THE OTHER SHORE
(Boxholder)
This collective free-jazz quartet chose their name well. The music is unflaggingly energetic and lively, but tenor-saxophonist Louie Belogenis, trumpeter Roy Campbell Jr., bassist Hill Greene, and drummer Michael Wimberly all realize that free jazz is more than just '60s-style energy music: tempering energy with lyricism, they lace the music with references to jazz history, funk, and world music. Campbell growls like an Ellingtonian Cootie Williams, erupts into long sprinting lines and funky blues inflections that would do Lee Morgan proud, and peppers his solos with free-jazz smears and abstract sounds. Belogenis's bright, pearly tenor tone complements a weighty lyricism on the title track and some plaintive, elegiac soloing on "Walking to Loisaida." Wimberly's hand drums inject African accents into "Afro-Eurasian Sketches," and his funk-groove-to-free-pulse trap kit propels "Exuberance." Bassist Greene lays down comfy walking-bass lines and mournful arco on "Walking to Loisaida," and his melodic concept both anchors and liberates the rhythmically free passages. Exuberance's playfulness with traditional elements, their beautifully complex and coherent collective improvising, and their selfless spirit combine for music that's intricate and clear, energetic but disciplined and varied, and a joy from beginning to end.
BY ED HAZELL
Issue Date: August 1 - August 7, 2003
Bobby Few & Avram Fefer Quartet Review
Bobby Few & Avram Fefer Quartet
Sanctuary
(CIMP)
by David Dupont - One Final Note
29 May 2006
The open-ended groove style Avram Fefer adopts for his session with pianist Bobby Few suits me just fine. It’s equal parts modal Coltrane, township beat, and contemporary free. He lays out appealing beats with scene-setter melodies that give the quartet plenty of room to move and swing out. They can wax lyrical or wail way out. And given the way the two leaders and rhythm mates—bassist Hilliard Greene and drummer Newman Taylor Baker—respond it’s clear the style suits them just fine as well. It’s especially nice to hear Few, best known to me and most for his extended tenure with Steve Lacy’s band, in such spacious surroundings. Here the wide open surroundings suit him, giving him a chance to tap into the various strains that feed his style from rhythm and blues to free form.
On the extended “Club Foot”, Few explodes with an antic boogie solo that rocks into the stratosphere. On the opening “Far to Few” and the ballad “For Frank (Lowe)” he plays with bell-like clarity. On the closer “City Life” he unleashes cascades of sound with bits of the theme and a bit of “Pop Goes the Weasel” bobbing up to the surface. And when Fefer enters to solo on soprano, the pianist persists. Few reserves his most tender playing for his own ballad “Boobree”, doing a whirling dance with touches of playfulness that he caps with a chiming two-fisted declaration. He brings the same range of colors to his accompaniment. On “Sanctuary” he sticks with the underlying riff, but continually sculpts and colors it to keep it fresh and offer new inspiration to a churning tenor solo.
Fefer is strong throughout. He works bits of his theme with vigor into kaleidoscopic inventions. His tone can soothe or bite, and his soprano is tart. He uses the smaller horn for his most exploratory playing on “Club Foot” and “City Life”. Greene’s warm bass provides just the right complement. On “City Life” Greene steps in after Fefer has tried to wind the proceedings back to the theme. Greene’s spare arco lines are a stark contrast to the antic proceedings, slipping into pizzicato to segue to a brief theme recapitulation. Taylor Baker, meanwhile, is ever-attentive to the needs of the compositions and helps shape the performances with well grounded ride patterns and touches of percussive color. And that, like everything else here, suits the music just fine.
3:30 Reviews
Big work for a musician he is same persuasive with any type and if [katapianetai]. This is least that we can say for the bass player Hill Greene after thirty years of collaborations with big names of creative scene (Cecil Taylor, Charles Gayle, Bobby Few, Rashied Ali, Leroy Jenkins) and [maiinstrim] (Jack Walrath, Jacky Terrasson, Bobby Watson, Kenny Barron), his long-lasting collaboration with crooner Jimmy Scott, the works with his own [mainstream] group Jazz Expressions and “Alone”, a important solo album that circulated a few years ago. From 2001, Greenet began to go often to Argentina, where he was known and played with a lot of musicians on the local scene. The result is “3: 30”, which are also the hours when they recorded in a studio, with enough newer his Ale Demogli (guitar) and Oscar Giunta (drums). Three standards, “Moose the Mooche of” Charlie Parker, four compositions of Demogli and Greene, which created one homogeneous set with frequent references to Argentinian music, that rolls pleasantly and effortlessly.
Greene, fits perfectly in the rythmical work with Giunta
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Las nuevas voces del jazz en Argentina parecen a esta altura estar desarrollando una saludable actitud de no tener que demostrar nada. Lo que prima en este excelente disco es, justamente, la contención, la economía de recursos y el lenguaje de la sutileza. Ale Demogli es un guitarrista capaz de sugerir climas y recorridos con pocos recursos, no por falta de ellos sino porque subordina el virtuosismo a la necesidad. Tanto en los standards como en sus propias composiciones, toda la música suena aérea y tranquila. Tal vez ese aplomo se deba a que cuenta con los mejores soportes, desde el extraordinario juego armónico de Hill Greene hasta la batería liviana y potente de Oscar Giunta. El pianista Pepe Angelillo aporta en algunos temas un marco tan sutil y adecuado que uno se queda con ganas de escucharlo más. Al margen está la anécdota de que este disco se grabó en tres horas y media. Lo importante es la música.
- Eduardo Hojman
Translated via internet to English
The new voices of the jazz in Argentina seem to this height to be developing a healthful attitude of not having to demonstrate nothing. What prime in this excellent disc it is, exactly, the containment, the economy of resources and the language of the subtility. Ale Demogli is a guitarist able to suggest climates and routes with few resources, not by lack of them but because she subordinates the virtuosity to the necessity. As much in standards as in its own compositions, all music sounds aerial and calm. Perhaps that seriousness must to that it counts on the best supports, from the extraordinary harmonic game of Hill Greene to the light and powerful battery of Oscar Giunta. The pianista Pepe Angelillo contributes in some subjects a so subtle and suitable frame that one remains with desire to listen to it more. To the margin it is the anecdote of which this disc was recorded in three hours and average. The important thing is music.
- Eduardo Hojman
With Patrick Brennan
Patrick Brennan
The Drum Is honor Enough + Rapt Circle
(CIMP + Cadence Jazz)
by Derek Taylor
10 September 2004
So many surnames congest the creative music ledger these days that it's easy for an individual to get lost in the shuffle. As a certain bigwig in the biz is often wont to say: "Welcome to obscurity". Saxophonist Patrick Brennan has been making music in a jazz vein since the early 1980s, but record dates beyond the occasional self-produced venture on his own Deep Dish imprint have been infrequent. Two recent discs slip additional bricks in the wall of his slim discography. Each is quite a different venture from his debut on the CIMP label, Saunters, Walks, Ambles with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis.
Both albums find Brennan's alto striking flinty sparks with a core trio referred to under the umbrella signifier Sonic Openings Under Pressure. The unctuous trombone of Steve Swell joins the lineup as second horn for The Drum is Honor Enough, stacking the deck further in Brennan's favor. Glimmers of Dolphy and Lyons are easily identifiable in the innards of Brennan's sound, but his method of articulating on his horn comes from a highly personalized place. Hilliard Greene and Newman Taylor Baker are hardly strangers to the scene, and they succeed in stitching a tight rhythmic weave for the horns to ricochet and converge across. The program is cleanly divided into two easily discernable episodes on the traycard. The first four cuts are freestanding compositions, while the final four align in an overarching suite with oddly Indian overtones, "Permeations Gumvindaboloo". These later pieces feel slightly rickety in spite of Baker's tight tension-ramping traps play.
"Hot Red" starts the set off somewhat taciturnly as Baker's tumbling tom beats form a crux around which the horns and Greene revolve and diverge. Fractured spates of funk surface and sink in the ensuing stew, leaving the whole track feeling a bit forced and overly repetitive in cast. The snail's pace funeral drag of "Shadow Doin'" feels better suited to the application of similar principles and gives Swell the opportunity to show off the stockpile of sliding glottal slurs at his disposal. Greene enters the discussion as an equal melodic partner with the horns plucking counterpoint patterns that float luminously in from stereo left. Later he bows a seesawing jig flanked by Baker's delicate chopstick patters. The action feeds directly into "Rough Hue", a busy honeycombed piece that makes incisive use of extended temporal space, despite some lull-laden patches.
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