2016 Jazz Archives Fellows and Institute of Jazz Studies and Dana Library faculty and staff pose with Joanne Robinson Hill and the processed Andrew Hill collection. Pictured (L-R) Angela Lawrence, Adriana Cuervo, Bob Nahory, Brad San Martin, Krista White, Joanne Robinson Hill, Veronica Johnson, Max Dienemann, Treshani Perera, Elizabeth Surles, and Tad Hershorn. Photo by Ed Berger, some rights reserved.
The Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS) is pleased to announce the availability of the Andrew Hill papers, music and audiovisual recordings, 1956–2011. Hill (1931–2007) was an influential and acclaimed jazz pianist, composer, band leader, educator, and winner of numerous prestigious jazz accolades, including the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master award in 2008, among the highest honors in jazz in the United States. The extensive collection, generously donated in 2015 by Hill’s widow, Joanne Robinson Hill, includes materials ranging from his musical compositions, sound recordings, correspondence, and awards, to press kits and even one of his favorite hats.
The collection was processed as part of the 2016 Jazz Archives Fellows residency, with IJS archivists Angela Lawrence, Tad Hershorn, and Elizabeth Surles working in tandem with jazz fellows Veronica Johnson, Brad San Martin, and Treshani Perera and intern Max Dienemann to arrange, describe, and rehouse the collection and create an EAD finding aid for the materials. The (IJS) started the Jazz Archives Fellows program in 2012 with two purposes in mind: to improve diversity in the archives profession and to provide a meaningful professional development opportunity for early career archivists and for students in graduate programs who intend to become archivists. In addition, the IJS benefits directly from the fellows’ work to process a collection. To see firsthand the fellows’ work and learn more about the collection and Andrew Hill, please explore the online finding aid at http://www2.scc.rutgers.edu/ead/ijs/hillf.html.
The processing of the collection is timely. While it has only been open to researchers for a couple of months (before being announced publicly), the collection has already been used to produce a series of Andrew Hill legacy concerts at the Jazz Standard in New York City to celebrate what would have been Hill’s 85th birthday, as well as supported research by scholars visiting the Institute.
