Hill—“a smart post-bop player who circumvents genre clichés
by incorporating elements of hip-hop and contemporary R&B,” says the New
Yorker—is uniquely and extraordinarily qualified for the job. He’s one of the
most gifted trumpeters on the scene and arguably the finest of his
generation—the victor of the 2014 Thelonious Monk competition, and the
recipient of the Rising Star title for trumpet in the 2016 DownBeat Critics
Poll. A Chicagoan now based in New York and barely into his 30s, Hill learned
the jazz language during a thrilling period in hip-hop history and the golden
age of neo-soul. In recent years, he’s developed a global reputation as a
determined and tastefully innovative bandleader.
In shaping the 15 original pieces that comprise Modern Flows
Vol. II, Hill assembled a group featuring other young masters—most of them
raised in or near Chicago as well—who share his ability to blend virtuosity
with a certain sonic rawness. The trumpeter tapped in alto saxophonist Josh
Johnson for his highly personal sound and the positive challenges he presents
as a frontline partner. “With a lot of players, you can tell they’ve checked
out this person or transcribed that musician. When I hear Josh, I hear Josh,”
Hill says. “I’m a firm believer that you should have people in your band who
push you, and playing with Josh pushes the hell out of me.” In Joel Ross, Hill
recruited the most buzzed-about and in-demand vibraphonist/marimbist currently
in jazz. For “the young genius,” as Hill calls Ross, the gig marks the
achievement of a long-held goal. “I remember Joel coming to shows in Chicago
and saying, ‘I wanna be in your band one day,’” Hill recalls. “And his time is
now.” Junius Paul, a deft acoustic and electric bassist who focuses on the
latter throughout Vol. II, is “like a walking library of music, and when he
plays it just all comes out,” Hill says. He has also informed the trumpeter’s
composing, in profound ways. “The type of basslines he naturally improvises, I
try to mimic those and write the music around them,” he explains. On drums is
L.A.’s Jonathan Pinson, whose versatility and willingness to invent seem
tailor-made for Hill’s genre-bending music. “He swings hard, and the music
comes from that,” Hill says. “But he’s from the hip-hop generation, so he has a
limitless number of grooves and beats.”
Of course, a fiercely talented and deeply interactive jazz
band is only about half the story on Modern Flows Vol. II. Among the simmering
intensity of instrumentals like “The Watcher” and “As I Am,” Hill and company
provide elastic, organic backing for some of today’s most incisive spoken-word
artists—poets who embody the hip-hop tenets that first attracted Hill to the
art form. “I value the truth aspect of hip-hop,” he explains. “I’m a fan of
music with a message.” On “Modern Flows II Intro,” emcee Brandon Alexander
Williams lays down the project’s mission statement, flowing a through line that
connects various corners of black musical culture; on “It Takes a Village,” he
meditates on issues of black identity and family.
Chicago’s M’Reld Green does impassioned work on “Prayer for
the People,” probing such social problems as gentrification, substance abuse
and racial disparities in policing; on “Herstory,” she illuminates the plight
of minority mothers, because the media won’t. Another brilliant Chicago
wordsmith, King Legend, closes the album with a message of self-empowerment on
“Legends Outro III.” Along the way, Vol. II takes additional inspired detours.
“Kiss and Tell,” featuring singers Braxton Cook and Rachel Robinson, is a
soulful dip into old-school R&B romance. Using a strategy he picked up by
studying Count Basie, Hill forgoes any improvised solos on “Stellar,” and
instead encourages his band to savor the beautiful melody. A brief but potent
exercise in Dilla-esque beatmaking, “Smoke Break” pays tribute to a
controversial healing herb—one that can be “necessary to the creative process,”
especially for musicians working a 12-hour day in the studio, Hill says,
chuckling.
For as long as Hill has been interested in the music of his
community, he’s refused to entertain the notion of stylistic barriers. “It
comes naturally; that’s the way I hear the music,” he says. “I was raised in a
household where my mom played Motown, R&B, Isley Brothers, Barry White,
Marvin Gaye… Then I received my first jazz record, by Lee Morgan, and that was
added to the collection… I truly believe that the music is all the same.”
Hill grew up on Chicago’s South Side, where he began playing
drums in the 4th grade before switching to trumpet in the 5th grade. He
attended high school at Kenwood Academy, with its renowned jazz-performance
program, and was mentored by Bobby Broom, Willie Pickens, Tito Carrillo and
other Chicago greats through the Ravinia Jazz Scholars program. Hill earned his
bachelor’s in music education from Northern Illinois University, and did his
graduate work at DePaul University. Throughout college he made gigs and
sessions around Chicago, jamming with and learning from the likes of Fred
Anderson, Ernest Dawkins and Von Freeman, and making a name for himself as a
stunningly skilled trumpeter.
By the time he won the Monk competition (and its Concord
recording contract) in the fall of 2014, Hill was a known commodity in
Midwestern jazz, having played in the Chicago Jazz Orchestra and self-released
several projects—including, just weeks prior, Modern Flows EP Vol. I. A move to
New York that same year helped him elevate his national profile, as did his
Concord Jazz debut of 2016, The Way We Play, a fantastic postmodern standards
record. “The groove-laden arrangements provide the perfect soundscape for
Hill’s fluid improvisational style, which, with its glass-like lucidity,
recalls the crisp elegance of hard-bop stalwart Donald Byrd,” DownBeat
commented. Hill has also been a powerhouse sideman for Marcus Miller, Joe
Lovano, his trailblazing Chicago peer Makaya McCraven, and other heavyweights.
Modern Flows Vol. II, which Hill is releasing on his Black
Unlimited Music Group imprint, is in many ways the definitive statement of his
musical life up to this present moment—as a player, composer, bandleader,
collaborator and, perhaps most important, as an artist with something to say.
“If you look at my past projects, there’s always been some kind of message,”
Hill explains. “Because the greatest music, the music that lasts, has some kind
of message. That’s what I try to aim for.”
Marquis Hill North American
Performances:
September 11 - 12 | Jazz Standard | New York NY
September 14 - 15 | SOUTH | Philadelphia, PA
September 16 | White Plains Jazz Festival | White Plains, NY
October 6 | Yard Bird Suite | Edmonton, AB, Canada
October 7 - 8 | Earshot Jazz Festival | Seattle, WA
October 10 - 13 | Mondavi Center | Davis, CA
October 14 | SFJAZZ, Joe Henderson Lab | San Francisco, CA
Marquis Hill · Modern Flows Vol. II
Black Unlimited Music Group · Release Date: October 19, 2018
Black Unlimited Music Group · Release Date: October 19, 2018
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