Unified Fragmentation: Andrew Hill’s Street Theory of Black Musical Space

This chapter examines Andrew Hill’s philosophical approach to improvisation based on a textual analysis of his unfinished theoretical treatise called Project Acculturation (1994) found amongst Hill’s papers in his archives at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. At the heart of Hill’s theory is a pedagogical paradigm he called “street approach to jazz improvisation.” Hill wanted institutional music curriculum to acculturate to the ways of learning that had shaped his musical approaches that extends from his experiences as a young musician in the Chicago Black jazz clubs, where he was encompassed by feeling of Black sociality. This is a feeling which he says is missing in what he calls white jazz. This chapter claims scholarship on Hill has largely focused on analyzing his compositional and improvisational analysis because he resisted musical and political categories. Hill’s musical approach to musical space in his composition “Malachi” (2006) is analyzed.