Trumpeter Ron Horton Releases “A Prayer for Andrew” Honoring Jazz Icon Andrew Hill
A Prayer for Andrew features 13 tracks of original works and interpretations from a star-studded sextet
Newvelle Records announces the release of A Prayer For Andrew, from trumpet and flugelhorn master Ron Horton. The two-disc vinyl release, ALSO AVAILABLE DIGITALLY and preserved on the highest quality 180-gram vinyl, honors the music of Andrew Hill. Featuring powerful interpretations of Hill’s arrangements as well as original works from Horton paying homage to his friend and bandmate, this masterful album released on December 14, 2023.
A Prayer for Andrew features a world-class sextet of Hill devotees and collaborators, including the late Frank Kimbrough on piano, Marty Ehrlich and John O’Gallagher, who split alto sax duties across the 13 tracks, Marc Mommas on tenor, Dean Johnson on bass, and Tim Horner on drums. Horton and Kimbrough forged a love of Hill’s intricate, harmonically ambitious music in the 1980s as the duo scoured record shops and libraries for rare prints of his albums, which date to the middle of the last century. They both ended up befriending the legendary musician and Ron joined his band as trumpeter and arranger of Hill’s “Point of Departure Sextet” from 1998 to 2003, including being featured on Hill’s “comeback album,” the critical darling Dusk.
“This is not a tribute record. We’ve been playing this music for decades,” says Horton. “The feeling we get when we play Andrew’s music is indescribable. We LOVE playing Andrew’s music. We glow when we play it. It’s emotional. Andrew is in the room.”
Since 1982, trumpeter Ron Horton has been an integral part of New York’s jazz scene and he stands out both as an exemplary instrumentalist and as a highly progressive composer and arranger. Whether called upon as a sideman or as a leader of one of his own ensembles, he shows that he is committed to further expanding the existing perimeters of jazz.
Ron Horton has released four critically lauded albums featuring his original compositions. He has also had an integral collaboration with New York’s Jazz Composers Collective, going back to its inception in 1992, and appears on several CDs by the other members of the group, such as Ben Allison, Frank Kimbrough, and Michael Blake, as well as the collective’s Herbie Nichols Project.
“Ron and the band have created a treasure here,” says Elan Mehler, Artistic Director of Newvelle Records. “There’s something determined—almost stubborn—in Andrew Hill’s music. A declaration in every note. Andrew’s music is not unvarnished or raw, it’s more unbending. You don’t pick up and read through an Andrew Hill tune, you try to enter a world view.”
A Prayer for Andrew was recorded at Systems Two in Brooklyn over the summer of 2016 by Max Ross, mixed by Michael Marciano, and mastered by Marc Urselli – all Grammy-award-winning engineers. The two records are pressed on 180-gram vinyl, using patented Groovecoated Stampers by Matt Earley of Gotta Groove Records, and preserved in gatefolds featuring original handmade artwork from Aithan Shapira and design by Carina Huynh and Jack Burnside.
Recognized for “its distinctive, brand-coherent album art” and for offering “a throwback to jazz’s midcentury glories” by The New York Times, Newvelle Records was founded in 2015 with a fundamentally different model for creating and distributing music in the digital age.
“Newvelle is arguably producing today’s best sounding new jazz recordings.” — HI-FI+
Artist: Ron Horton
Title: A Prayer for Andrew
Release date: December 14, 2023
Label: Newvelle Records
Ron Horton (trumpet, flugelhorn)
Marty Ehrlich (alto sax, bass clarinet) on Prayer for Andrew, Dusk, ML, Tough Love, Bellezza #1
John O’Gallagher (alto sax) on all others
Marc Mommaas (tenor sax)
Frank Kimbrough (piano)
Dean Johnson (bass)
Tim Horner (drums)
A1
1. Prayer for Andrew
2. Erato
3. Venture Inward
4. Home
B1
5. Dusk
6. Scrum
7. Andrew-ology
A2
8. ML
9. Hill Country
10. 15-8
B2
11. Tough Love
12. Punch
13. Bellezza #1
Featured Image Credit: Clara Periera
Source: Ann Braithwaite
Click this link to purchase the special two-vinyl LP set. Click below to purchase the digital version on Bandcamp.
