Jimmy Hill

Jimmy Hill's saxophone career extended across more than six decades after he first appropriated the instrument his older brother had concealed in a closet. Club dates in the 1940s marked the start of his professional work while he was still attending high school, yet his recording activity only gained momentum in later life through a series of self-produced albums that highlighted his regular ensemble. Strong ties to the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania brought him lasting regard for his teaching efforts. He created and ran Youth Theatre Interaction, Inc., an after-school performing-arts initiative serving children in Yonkers and Westchester County.

Associations developed with vocalist Etta Jones, the subject of one of his dedicated tribute recordings, along with saxophonists Sonny Stitt and Houston Person, organists Gloria Coleman and Dr. Lonnie Smith, pianist Cedar Walton, and guitarist Joe Puma. Ear training took place literally inside a bucket at The Bucket, the Mt. Vernon, NY, jazz club that carried the same local weight as Minton's in New York City proper. Although he maintained he had never received a formal lesson, work with Mike Mainieri and Sal Mosca introduced aspects of the Lennie Tristano school even though he never learned to read music. That limitation did not bar him from stages such as Sweet Basil in New York City or from appearances at assorted festivals and concerts throughout the jazz capital.

In the 1990s he concentrated on his own band, which, at least in the studio, maintained a steady personnel of pianist Hiroshi Yamazaki, bassist Fred Hunter, and drummer Joe Ragusa, sometimes joined by vocalist Glenda Davenport. The 2001 album Friends was dedicated to Etta Jones, with whom he had also recorded on her album At Last. Emphysema ended his life on June 9, 2004; he was 76.