Alex Hill

A very important and talented musician/arranger whose lifestyle was cut short simply by illness, Alex Hill accomplished a good deal in a brief period of your time without gaining any true fame. Regarded a tiny prodigy, Hill was trained piano by his mom. He went to Shorter University and fulfilled Alphonse Trent, for whom he had written his first preparations. After graduating in 1922, at age 16, he spent a few years freelancing in place bands including a short stint with Terrence Holder’s Dark Clouds of Pleasure. Hill led his very own group (1924-1926), used Swiftness Webb in 1926, and the next season was with Mutt Carey’s Jeffersonians in LA, also contributing preparations for Paul Howard’s Quality Serenaders. Afterwards in 1927 he resolved in Chicago and shortly Hill was the personnel arranger for the Melrose Music Posting Company furthermore to contributing preparations for the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra. In 1928 he used Jimmy Wade and the next year was an associate of Jimmie Noone’s Apex Membership Orchestra. Throughout a tour with Sammy Stewart’s Orchestra, Hill relocated to NY in early 1930. He freelanced as an arranger for such performers as Paul Whiteman, Benny Carter, Claude Hopkins, Andy Kirk, Ina Ray Hutton, the Mills Blue Tempo Orchestra, and Duke Ellington, plus added charts for documenting dates going by Extra fat Waller, Eddie Condon, and Willie Bryant. Hill was also the personnel arranger for the Mills Music Business. He teamed up with fellow pianist Extra fat Waller to get a revue, Hello 1931, and followed vocalist Adelaide Hall within a piano duet alongside Joe “Stride” Turner. Factors were finding out about in 1935 when Hill shaped a big music group but, after playing on the Savoy Ballroom, he was compelled to split up the group because of his failing wellness, due to tuberculosis, rather than helped by extreme taking in and overwork. After coming back home to Small Rock, he passed on at age 30. The majority of pianist/arranger’s recordings have already been gathered together in the 1998 Timeless Compact disc Ain’t It Great: The Recordings of Alex Hill, Vol. 1 – 1928-1934, like the features of schedules with Albert Wynn, Jimmy Wade, Jimmie Noone, Junie Cobb, Eddie Condon, as well as the Hokum Trio, plus most of his 11 game titles as a head. Among Alex Hill’s best-known compositions are “Beau Koo Jack port” (documented by Louis Armstrong in 1928), “I’m Crazy ‘Bout My Baby,” “Baby Dark brown” (a hit for Extra fat Waller), and specifically the typical “I’D Do Anything for you personally.”