SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SUMMER/FALL, 2017
VOLUME FOUR NUMBER THREE
ESPERANZA SPALDING
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
JAZZMEIA HORN
(August 12-18)
ROY HAYNES
(August 19-25)
MCCOY TYNER
(August 26-September 1)
AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE
(September 2-8)
AARON DIEHL
(September 9-15)
CECILE MCLORIN SALVANT
(September 16-22)
REGGIE WORKMAN
(September 23-29)
ANDREW CYRILLE
(September 30-October 6)
BARRY HARRIS
(October 7-13)
MARQUIS HILL
(October 14-20)
HERBIE NICHOLS
(October 21-27)
GREG OSBY
(October 28-November 3)
About Marquis Hill
Chicago has long been a major jazz cradle. Ever since pioneers such as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and King Oliver planted seeds of the music in 1917, the Windy City has birthed numerous jazz titans of various stylistic idioms, ranging from such swing stalwarts as Benny Goodman and Bud Freedman to such modernists as Muhal Richard Abrams, Jack DeJohnette and Herbie Hancock. You can now add 29-year-old Marquis Hill to the list. The New York Times described him as a “dauntingly skilled trumpeter,” and the Chicago Tribune asserts that “his music crystallizes the hard-hitting, hard-swinging spirit of Chicago jazz.”
Hill hones a warm, mellifluous tone on trumpet and flugelhorn with which he unravels sleek melodic passages that are as commanding as they are cogent. As a composer, he builds upon his distinctive sound to craft arresting originals that embrace post-bop, hip-hop, R&B and spoken word. After releasing four well-received discs on Skiptone Music – New Gospel (2011), Sound of the City (2012), The Poet (2013) and Modern Flows, vol. 1 (2014) – Hill raised his profile significantly by winning the 2014 Thelonious Trumpet Competition, which awarded him a $25,000 scholarship and a recording contract with Concord Records.
His enthralling Concord Records debut, The Way We Play will have featured Hill fronting his commanding ensemble, the Blacktet (altoist Christopher McBride, vibraphonist Justin Thomas, bassist Joshua Ramos, drummer Makaya McCraven and special guests Christie Dashiell, Vincent Gardner, Juan Pastor, and Harold Green III, respectively on voice, trombone, percussion, and spoken word). The Way We Play has captured Hill's uber-tasteful redress of standards, many learnt in formative years. Classics like Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” and Monk’s “Straight No Chaser” have been joined by less known things like Carmell Jones’ “Beep Durple” and Donald Byrd’s “Fly Little Bird Fly." Always reverencing essence, Hill yet brought his lyrically postmodern groove to the material.
Music captured and cultivated Hill’s powerful imagination from very early on. While growing up in the Chatham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, he began playing drums in the forth grade but was soon wooed toward trumpet by his older cousin's practicing of the instrument. His introduction to jazz, fifth grade, was via attendance at Dixon Elementary. The school’s band director Diane Ellis gave him a Lee Morgan album, quickly igniting and lighting a strategic young pilgrimage. “I praise her a lot,” says Hill. “I listened to that Lee Morgan record and had my mind blown. Since that moment I’ve just been in love with this music.”
The next year, Hill met another musical educator who would have a profound influence – Ronald Carter. In addition to being the jazz director for Northern Illinois University, Carter also ran the South Shore Youth Program, a youth organization that took inner-city kids and paid them every two weeks to rehearse in a big band for five days a week and hold weekly concerts. Carter made such an indelible impression that he inspired Hill to attend Northern Illinois University (NIU) after attending Kenwood Academy High School. Hill graduated from the NIU in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education.
Hill also participated in the Ravinia Jazz Scholars, which afforded him the opportunity to learn under such established jazz artists as guitarist Bobby Broom, pianist Willie Pickens, and trumpeter Tito Carrillo. While still an undergraduate, Hill became one of Chicago’s most in-demand jazz trumpeters; he made noteworthy club dates with a host of the Chi-Town’s finest including saxophonists Von Freeman and Fred Anderson.
Hill’s formal musical education continued at DePaul University’s School of Music, where he earned a graduate degree in jazz pedagogy. Even as a recording artist, leading his Blacktet and appearing on recordings by such Chicago-based artists as singer Milton Suggs, saxophonist Ernest Dawkins, and bassist Matt Ulery, Hill maintained his involvement in music education by teaching at the University of Illinois in Chicago, Harold Washington College, the Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Egg Harbor, Wis., and the NIU Summer Jazz Camp.
In 2014, Hill moved to New York while still making numerous appearances in Chicago. Focusing on his solo career is paramount, but he’s still making waves as a sideman for internationally acclaimed artists such as bassist Marcus Miller and saxophonist Joe Lovano. Two years after winning the Monk Competition, Hill says that he’s still on cloud nine. “Winning that competition taught me to trust myself and keep working hard for what I believe in,” he says. “That experience taught me that I’m here for a purpose. So I need to keep pushing my music forward.”
Marquis Hill
(b.1987)
Artist Biography by Matt Collar
Award-winning trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Marquis Hill is a highly skilled jazz musician with a bent toward soulful post-bop. A native of Chicago, Hill earned his B.A. in music education and jazz studies from Northern Illinois University in 2009. Three years later, he received his Master's degree in jazz pedagogy from DePaul University. A highly lauded performer, Hill won first place in both the 2012 International Trumpet Guild's Jazz Improvisation Competition and the 2013 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition. As a professional musician, he has performed with a wide array of artists including Benny Golson, Rodney Whitaker, Steve Turre, and others. He released his debut album, New Gospel, in 2011, followed by Sounds of the City in 2012. His third full-length album, The Poet, appeared in 2013. In 2014, Hill gained even further acclaim by winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute's International Jazz Competition. As part of his prize, Hill earned a recording contract with the Concord Music Group. On the heels of his win, he released his fourth studio album, the hip-hop-infused Modern Flows EP, Vol. 1. In 2016, he delivered his Concord debut, The Way We Play.
NPR
Jazz Night In America
The Making Of Marquis Hill
November 5, 2015
About a year ago, trumpeter Marquis Hill, now 28, traveled to Los Angeles, played five tunes for a panel of judges, and won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. You can think of it as a sort of Heisman Trophy for young jazz artists, meaning that a lot more people discovered his talent in a hurry.
Hill's profile may have risen suddenly, but talent like that doesn't spontaneously emerge from nowhere. It takes a village of mentors, peers, opportunities and other educational infrastructure to enable a musician to grow. That's especially true with jazz, an inherently social music historically conveyed through the oral tradition. Besides, in his hometown of Chicago, folks had already known about Hill for some time: That's the "village" that raised him, after all.
Marquis Hill now splits his time between the Windy City and New York City, but still maintains a snappy working band full of catchy melodic ideas — a five-piece outfit he calls the Marquis Hill Blacktet. On one of his trips back home this summer, we asked him to show us "his" Chicago, culminating in a Blacktet performance downtown at one of the city's premier clubs: the Jazz Showcase.
Jazz Night In America travels to one of the great jazz cities to meet some of the people and places which transformed a young trumpeter from the South Side of Chicago into Marquis Hill.
Personnel
Marquis Hill, trumpet; Christopher McBride, alto saxophone; Justefan (Justin Thomas), vibraphone; Joshua Ramos, bass; Makaya McCraven, drums
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https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/marquishill
Marquis Hill
At age 26, Marquis Hill is already a well-known name on the Chicago Jazz Scene.
After retrieving a Bachelor degree in Music Education/Jazz Studies, and studying privately at Northern Illinois University, he started performing heavily in Chicago.
He has performed with artist such as: Dee Alexander, Tito Carrillo, Bobby Broom, Willie Pickens, Ron Perrillo, Victor Garcia, Benny Golson, Antonio Hart, Rodney Whitaker, Steve Turre, Ernest Dawkins, Maurice Brown, Corey Wilkes, Willerm Delisfort, Brian Lynch and many others. He has toured the U.S and abroad with many different artist and groups; Sirens of Sound, The Delisfort Project, Chicago 12, Bebop Brass, Ronald Carter Big Band, New Horizons.
In Spring of 2012, Hill retrieved his Masters degree in Jazz Pedagogy from De Paul University.
MARQUIS HILL, 2014 THELONIOUS MONK INTERNATIONAL JAZZ COMPETITION WINNER, PAYS HOMAGE TO HIS FORMATIVE YEARS IN CHICAGO WITH STIRRING MAKEOVERS OF JAZZ STANDARDS
Concord Jazz debut The Way We Play set for release on June 24, 2016
For the past five years, 29-year-old trumpeter Marquis Hill has been invigorating the Chicago jazz scene with his sleek approach to modern jazz, which often incorporates elements of spoken word and hip-hop. JazzTimes praised his trumpet playing by stating, “His articulation, precise but unlabored, calls to mind the precedent of Clifford Brown, while his bravura phrasing suggests an equal immersion in Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw. All of which surely helped his cause at [the 2014] Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, where he won first prize.”
Hill now splits most of his time between his hometown of Chicago and New York City – a decision that provides him a greater pool of jazz talents to help hone his musicianship. With the June 24, 2016 release of The Way We Play, Hill’s debut for Concord Jazz, his profile as a new commanding voice on the jazz landscape will undoubtedly rise.
On The Way We Play, Hill fronts his regular ensemble of four years, the Blacktet, which consists of alto saxophonist Christopher McBride, vibraphonist Justin Thomas, drummer Makaya McCraven, and bassist Joshua Ramos. It’s a smart tactic because it plays to the strengths of Hill as a bandleader and affords the music a vivacious group accord that often comes from years of playing together. Hill, however, flips the scripts on the new disc. Instead of offering entirely original material as he did on his last three discs, he revisits a handful of jazz standards. “I want to pay homage to some of my favorite jazz standards and American songbook classics,” Hill says. “These are some of the songs that I came up playing in various jam sessions; these songs really taught me how to play jazz.”
The Way We Play is hardly a color-by-numbers jazz standards album. As Hill has done on his previous discs, he revitalizes the material by placing heavier emphasis on the groove, which enables the compositions to resonate more to a 21st-century jazz audience – hence the disc’s witty title. “I really want to make it very clear that this is the sound of my band, which is uniquely Chicago. I wanted to put everything on the table – this is the way that we play,” Hill explains.
The Chicago Tribune asserts that the spirit of Chicago is deeply integral to his music by stating, “…his music crystallizes the hard-hitting, hard-swinging spirit of Chicago jazz.” Indeed, Chi-town references burst forward at the very beginning with “Welcome / ‘Bulls Theme’,” on which guest vocalist Meagan McNeal introduces the band with the same hypnotic theme used by the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s when Michael Jordan played with the team.
From there, Hill launches into an entrancing take on a Gigi Gryce’s 1950s minor-blues classic with the two-part mashup “The Way We Play / Minority.” The ensemble accentuates Gryce’s original opening bass line groove before Hill and McBride articulate the zigzagging melodic figure in unison. The rhythm soon breaks into a quicksilver swing forward motion that sweeps Hill’s authoritative improvisation. The inventive makeover also features spoken-word artist Harold Green III delivering lyrical prose that aptly describes the Chicago sound.
“Prelude,” a dulcet trumpet solo, gives way to the mesmerizing rendition of Horace Silver’s late-1950s composition “Moon Rays” with which McCraven and Ramos underpin with a skittering, almost drum-n-bass flow. “I learned that tune when I was a sophomore in high school in an after-school program called the Merit School of Music,” Hill recalls. “The melody is so beautiful and so singable.”
The mood simmers down for Hill’s sensual take on Victor Young and Ned Washington’s classic ballad “My Foolish Heart.” In addition to the subtle, R&B rhythmic flourishes lurking underneath, Hill’s makeover also stars Christie Dashiell, who brings a soothing, sunny verve to the fore as Hill’s muted trumpet interjects melodic asides.
Amorous overtones continue with a stunning reading of Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke’s “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” of which Hill almost plays entirely solo on flugelhorn, which allows listeners to full luxuriate inside his velvety tone and graceful improvisation.
With the help of percussionist Juan Pastor, the tempo picks back up with an Afro-Cuban take on Donald Byrd’s mid-1960s burner “Fly Little Bird Fly,” another tune highlighted by Green’s uplifting prose. This tune is especially personal for Hill because Byrd is one of his biggest and earliest jazz influences. “When I was in high school, he was the cat that I wanted to sound like,” Hill remembers. “When I was in high school, I was on a mission to find every record that Donald Byrd was on.”
The Chicago connection between Hill and the material becomes even more pronounced with the delightful cover of “Maiden Voyage,” a mid-1960s standard, written by fellow Windy City-native Herbie Hancock. On Hill’s version, he slowed the tempo and dropped the key to G-flat to give the evocative composition darker hues.
After bursting through a flinty exploration through the Thelonious Monk mid-1960s staple “Straight No Chaser,” Hill digs deep into the post-bop canon and unearths Carmell Jones’ rare 1965 tune, “Beep Durple,” on which the frontline horns deftly tackle the tricky melody atop a fractured yet forward motion rhythmic bed. The ebullient rendition also features trombonist and fellow-Chicagoan Vincent Gardner of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Peruvian rhythms burst forth from Pastor’s cajón drumming on “Juan’s Interlude,” before the disc concludes with an Afro-Latin 7/4 version of Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 signature tune “Smile.” Featuring just trumpet, bass and cajón, Hill’s zesty rendition makes a fitting conclusion for The Way We Play, a fetching refurbishing of old favorites with a decidedly 21st-century twist.
Scroll down to preview ‘Modern Flows Vol. I’ in its entirety. Order your copy of Marquis Hill’s ‘Modern Flows Vol. 1’ via bandcamp and iTunes.
Marquis Hill plays at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club on Friday night. Courtesy marquishill.com
Marquis Hill: Jazz’s most celebrated young trumpeter on the ‘Modern Flows’ of Black music today
by Luke Stewart
January 21, 2016
CapitalBop
Marquis Hill is fast becoming one of the leading trumpet players of his generation. His sound is strong but pleasing, his concepts in tune with the current wave of innovation in jazz. He developed within the fertile music scene of Chicago, where he took advantage of many of the institutional opportunities available to talented youth. Outside those institutions, though, he benefited from the city’s strong jam session culture, learning first-hand from masters of the music.
It is this beautiful experience that has fueled his passion for learning and his aspiration to become an educator. He chose to study jazz education in college, and one can easily imagine him one day leading a jazz program. But his career as a musician is rapidly growing more busy as he leads his own groups, tours with more established acts and collaborates with some of the most exciting rising musicians in jazz today. It is no wonder that he won the Thelonious Monk Competition for trumpet in 2014.
His most recent album, Modern Flows, Vol. 2, is a contemporary jazz musician’s display of his experience as a youth growing up in Urban America. It bumps and nods like hip-hop, but it morphs and progresses like a classic jazz album. But this is not an overt blend. Rather it is a natural display of compositions rooted in a desire for innovation, connecting tradition and self-expression.
For the first time as a bandleader, Hill will perform at the Kennedy Center here in D.C. with his Blacktet, made up of some of the most intriguing young musicians from Chicago. The group’s synergy is magnetic and full of surprise. Perhaps most importantly, the group’s music is full of rhythmic excitement, sparking a physical reaction. Over top of it all, the frontline horns of Hill and saxophonist Christopher McBride propel the rhythm with soulful flow, like a master MC over boom-bap.
Hill and I caught up recently to talk about some of his experiences growing up in Chicago, the Monk competition, jazz education and his music.
CapitalBop: Speak a little about your experience with Jazz Education. You were the beneficiary of many key educational opportunities at an early age. How has that experience shaped your goals and concepts as an educator?
Marquis Hill: I was fortunate enough to be introduced to jazz and jazz education at a young age. I started in 4th grade at Dixon Elementary School. The band director, Dianne Ellis, she’s just one of those teachers who ingrained jazz into her students at a really young age. I joined the jazz band at 5th grade, started on the drums, then switched to trumpet at 6th grade. [Ms. Ellis] gave me my first jazz record, which was a Lee Morgan record, so I was just in it early. I fell in love with it then, and I played throughout 8th grade then I went to one of the best high schools in Chicago for jazz at the time, Kenwood Academy. The band director was Will McClellan, who was very similar to Ms. Ellis, my elementary school teacher. He was really big on jazz and ingrained it into his students at Kenwood.
One experience did have a big impact on me. I joined the South Shore Youth Jazz Ensemble, which was run by Mr. Ronald Carter. It was like a summer job. We met every day for 2 months and we got paid. We would rehearse five hours a day with the big band, and we had master classes daily, clinics, then every weekend we would have a performance. So I was doing this from 7th grade through high school as a summer job. I was just immersed in it heavy at a very young age. So after high school I knew I wanted to go into education. I had seen the impact it had on me, starting in elementary school, so I knew I wanted to have that same kind of impact on people. I knew I wanted to be a teacher, I wanted to teach and educate. The more I got into it, I decided I wanted to play a little more, but I still had a strong passion for education. So I went to Northern Illinois University and I got my degree in music education knowing that I eventually wanted to teach at the university level. Then I went to grad school and got my degree in jazz pedagogy, knowing that it would eventually help to get me a position over a jazz ensemble, or over a program at a college, or at an arts high school. So I knew very early that I wanted to be heavy into education, and it’s just lately that things have started to pick up in performances.
CB: Do you see any distinction between a musician getting a degree in Jazz Education versus Jazz Studies?
MH: There is definitely a big difference. To play this music, there is only so much someone can teach you. In college and higher education, they educate the students, but at the end of the day, you have to bring it back to the streets. You have to play with other musicians; you have to put your own projects together; go to jam sessions and interact with the scene and fellowship with musicians. You can definitely learn a lot from getting a jazz studies degree, but at the end of the day you have to experience and get your true education by doing the things that the greats did in the music. That’s been a battle for a long time: what’s better, the University of the Street or a jazz studies degree?
CB: It calls into question so many issues like privilege and family wealth and time. It can be said that that system has fed into many of the issues of today. Many musicians in jazz feel that the music industry at large seems to be out of touch with what modern and contemporary jazz is, and how it is active currently. Based on this feeling, it seems like there is a need for the masses and for those working in the industry to be educated. What do you think drives this ignorance, and how can musicians and aficionados help to increase awareness and passion for jazz?
MH: To me and my experience, it starts with the music that children are listening to nowadays. The music is being whitewashed by all the pop music and hip-hop. I’m a huge hip-hop fan, but it is overshadowing jazz because most people are listening to the popular music of today.
CB: Another thing that we talk about a lot are the parallels between hip-hop and jazz in terms of popularity. The popular music of today is often called hip-hop, but I can recall hearing from many of the music’s most revered artists – KRS One, Rakim, even Nas and Jay-Z, have all made statements about how hip-hop has died. When listening to what people call hip-hop today, it does indeed sound completely different from what hip-hop was called back then. Same with jazz. And like jazz, that “true” hip-hop is still alive and well, but constricted to the underground.
MH: When you put it that way, that is very interesting. I would agree. A lot of music that people consider hip-hop, it really isn’t. So when I talk about the music with my friends, I have to make that distinction between what is rap, and what is hip-hop.
Marquis Hill. Courtesy marquishill.com
CB: It’s funny that so many jazz musicians have tried to blend hip-hop into the music, but you haven’t really heard of many people trying to blend, say, “trap music” and jazz.
MH: Yeah, that’s what people are calling hip-hop these days.
CB: Do you consider your album Modern Flows to be an intentional blend of hip-hop and jazz?
MH: The goal for me was to play with the concept of flow. When I refer to flow in hip-hop, I mean the rhythm and the flow of the rapper over the beat. I was listening to Eminem, then I would listen to a Charlie Parker solo, and it came to me that they were playing the exact same rhythm. If you were to compare the rhythms, they have the exact same flow. So I went into the record thinking about that concept, and I didn’t know that I wanted to blend hip-hop and jazz. I just wanted to put my own twist on it, my 2015 twist on it.
CB: I like that, because of how you said it “flows,” rather than “nods,” like a classic hip-hop track. The rhythms change and are progressive, but the feel is natural.
MH: Exactly, and that’s what I wanted to play with. If you think about it, true hip-hop and jazz are very similar. The feeling of the music, the “music of the people,” it has the same rhythms and melodies. Its really similar; that line is blurred. I wanted to really play around with that concept.
I was listening to Eminem, then I would listen to a Charlie Parker solo, and it came to me that they were playing the exact same rhythm
CB: It is no secret that you and many in this current generation of jazz musicians are deeply influenced by hip-hop, a generation that experienced firsthand the music completely take over of mainstream culture. Could you explain your personal relationship with hip-hop and the ways and approaches to how you incorporate it into your music.
MH: I’m a huge Nas fan, but if you ask me this question on another day, the answers will probably vary. Rakim. KRS One. Some of 9th Wonder’s artists are some of the people keeping that true hip-hop feeling alive. He’s got an artist by the name of Rapsody, that I really enjoy some of the stuff she puts out. In terms of incorporating it into the music, for me its all about the feeling of it. The groove and the feeling of it and blending it into my music. And because I was raised listening to hip-hop and listening to soul music and music from that era, its kind of ingrained in me so it naturally comes out in my music, so I’ve started to embrace that more.
CB: Any Chicago hip-hop folks?
Of course Common, Kanye when he was still Kanye. But I haven’t really dug deep and researched some of the older Chicago stuff. But definitely Common and Lupe, when he was doing more true hip-hop stuff.
CB: Chicago has such a long history of great trumpet players, going back to Louis Armstrong and King Oliver. Shed some light to those on the outside, who makes up the tradition of jazz trumpet in Chicago? What place does/should the city’s tradition take in the history of jazz?
MH: Man, the house scene, the AACM [Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians], there’s a lot of powerful music in general that came out of Chicago. One of my first teachers in Chicago was a trumpet player named Tito Carrillo. He teaches now at University of Illinois down in the suburbs in Champaign-Urbana. He was one of the first teachers who really put me on to the music. Another trumpet player Pharez Whitted, he’s actually from Indianapolis but has lived in Chicago for a long time, so people just consider him a Chicagoan. Art Hoyle’s in town, who’s a legend. Played with Sun Ra, played with Johnny Griffin, and a lot of cats. I got the opportunity to work with him a lot, just growing up in the Chicago scene. Malachi Thompson, some of the musicians more associated with the AACM. So yeah, there’s definitely a lineage and tradition of trumpet players in Chicago, and I was fortunate enough to get a taste of some of that.
CB: And how do you see yourself within that lineage of trumpet players in Chicago?
MH: I don’t really think about it much, but I like to think that my goal is to be a part of it one day. For me its all about the continuum. Keeping that tradition alive, and those voices alive, but also adding to it, bringing my own unique thing to it. You have to keep that going but at the same time, times are changing. Times are moving on. You have to bring your own unique voice to it.
CB: What was your exposure to the AACM in Chicago? What did you take away from your experiences with them?
MH: I learned a lot from playing with Fred Anderson and Ernest Dawkins and the gigs I did have with the AACM. My first experience was going to the Velvet Lounge with Fred Anderson, which was his joint. He was there every night. I started going to shows and sessions that were lead by the AACM, and it just felt natural. I think one thing I’m starting to notice is that coming out in my playing, just those experiences that I had with the AACM. Ernest actually gave me my first professional paying gig in Chicago. I want to say I was a freshman in high school, and it was with the AACM. We did a gig at I think Malcolm X College. He kinda just threw us in there, and I learned so much from that experience. He just said “sit down and play.” Him doing that with no prep, I learned so much and took away so much from it. So Fred and Ernest gave me the most experience with the AACM.
CB: What is the AACM’s presence currently in Chicago within the music community?
MH: Well Chicago is a “Free Jazz” city. People love the music there. But, over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed that it has been dying down a little bit, not doing as much. But Ernest has actually just taken over as the president [of the AACM], and I think they’re starting to do way more in the city now. But the people always love the AACM in Chicago.
Times are changing. Times are moving on. You have to bring your own unique voice.
CB: How has the Monk Competition win affected you?
MH: I just moved to New York the September before the competition, but the win has really given me a nice welcome to the city. People are aware that I’m there, and my name is in peoples’ mouth. I just got off the road with Marcus Miller for 2 months. I’m assuming the Monk win had something to do with that! He probably heard my name and checked me out from that.
Working for Concord has been great. We’re all set to record, and the plan is to have it out in June. So everything has been smooth and on the up and up so far, I’m still on cloud 9 off of all of it. Just going along with the ride.
CB: And how was the experience of the competition itself?
MH: It was great man. It was nerve-wracking because I’m playing for some of my idols and some of the greatest trumpet players in the world. I just told myself that this is what I do. I play professionally, so I’m gonna just go out here and play my horn. It was cool, they were all great.
The entire thing was just amazing. During the semi-finals, they had all of us warming up in one room waiting to go on, so that was nerve wracking. Once I made it to the finals, we were all backstage and my nerves were on 10. I went on last and I didn’t want to hear the other cats performing because I was so nervous. So I put in my headphones and listened to some Erykah Badu. Cats don’t believe me when I tell them that, but I had to get into my zone.
It was an eye-opening experience. I’m still floating around thinking about it. One thing that really opened my eyes was how the finals was like an awards show, similar to the Soul Train Awards. That was a sign to me that jazz is on the rise in a certain aspect. There were folks there that I didn’t really think would be there.
CB: Is there anything in particular that excites you about performing in D.C.?
MH: I did a program at the Kennedy Center in 2010, it was the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program. I got to experience the city, hit all the jam sessions on U Street, met a lot of cats on the scene. It was a 2 week residency there, so D.C. kinda grew on me during that experience. The Kennedy Center is an amazing venue to play at, and I knew that one day I wanted to bring my own thing there. This is my first time bringing my band there. This is my first time as a leader in D.C. period, so I’m pumped. Especially since it gets to be at the Kennedy Center. Interview: Marquis Hill – ‘Modern Flows Vol. 1’
That old adage that goes “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” doesn’t really apply to music. Music is an aural tradition that requires potential practitioners to sit at the feet of a master and earn their stripes via apprenticeship. While there are definitely plenty of so-called educators who are still salty about their lack of performance career, there are also proper artist-educators like trumpeter Marquis Hill who blur the lines between teacher and performer. The Chicago native holds an undergraduate degree in Music Education as well as Master’s in Jazz Pedagogy. More recently, Hill also took the top prize during the 2014 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition. We recently sat down with Hill over the phone to discuss his latest release, Modern Flows Vol. 1
Revive: I know you have a Master’s in Jazz Pedagogy. How does Jazz Pedagogy differ from Music Education?
Marquis Hill: I got my undergraduate degree in Music Education from Northern Illinois University and that’s really more for training you to teach in public schools. I’ve always had a passion for teaching and I wanted to teach elementary school so I could teach kids when they’re really young – I fell in love with this music when I was really young. I actually taught elementary school for a little bit after graduating grad school.
A music ed degree teaches you how to play all the instruments and you’re learning how to deal with children. A jazz pedagogy degree is really about how to teach jazz. It was a lot of hands-on and a lot of playing. It’s very similar to a Jazz Studies degree, there’s just more of an emphasis on the teaching aspect.
R: You just won the Monk Competition and your name will most definitely be in the limelight. How will your budding performance career affect your affinity for teaching?
MH: Being associated with the Monk Institute has gotten me into a higher platform and, hopefully, it’s going to allow me to teach and do more of an outreach. I’m a player at heart, but it’s really important to teach and keep the lineage of the music going. That’s really what the music is about – it’s an aural tradition. I’m hoping that my association with the Monk Institute will give me more opportunities to teach and help out in that way.
R: I just got a chance to sit with Modern Flows Vol. 1 the whole way through. I enjoyed how the album really showcases your breadth as a composer. Is this what we can expect for your next album?
MH: I think that I’m going to go on a different direction for the next album. Modern Flows is a concept I came up with because I’m a huge fan of hip-hop. The more I listen to hip-hop and jazz I just find more similarities with rhythms and stuff like that. So, that was the concept of that record. It’s really my interpretation of combining the two. So I’m definitely going to do a Modern Flows Vol. II.
But for my next record, I’m actually leaning into doing something else. I’ll probably do something more straight-ahead/standardish, but with my own twist. That’s what I’m leaning towards.
R: Have you hit the studio for that yet?
MH: Not yet. I just released Modern Flows Vol. 1 so I’m in the talks with Concord about taking space in between. I’ll definitely have something out by the end of this year.
R: I was lucky enough to have attended a master class featuring Joshua Redman and he told us that his decision to join the Monk Competition was sort of a whim. What was your decision process to enter the Monk Competition like?
MH: I know some people who wait on the competition like, “It’s for saxophone this year, I’m going to go for it.” It wasn’t one of those things for me. I was looking at my age and I knew that I would want to try to do it eventually because it’s one of the most prestigious jazz competitions. I feel like you have to at least try to do it. I’m 27, and I hadn’t done it so I felt like it was my time because the deadline is 30. So I felt like I had to go for it. I threw it together pretty last minute, but it worked out and it was a great experience.
R: You’ve mentioned before that you like going for “Chicago” in your sound. Could you extrapolate that a bit? What does it mean to have a Chicago sound? And maybe talk about the Chicago scene a little more for our readers who aren’t that familiar with Chi-city.
MH: There’s a lot of great music in Chicago. But going back to a “Chicago” in my sound… I guess what I meant by that is that being from Chicago, being raised around the music that I listened to when I was growing up and the people I played with, contributes to my sound. I’ve always been a big fan of all types of music, so I really think that really helped me find my own thing and I’m still in search of that. But I think being exposed to all types of music – especially at a young age.
I got to meet Fred Anderson when I was young. He’s a great staple in the AACM scene and I got a chance to play with him when I was in high school. I’ve met people like the great Ari Brown and Von Freeman. So that’s really what I mean; just being from Chicago and being in the scene and being raised around that tradition. I think that’s what I mean when I say I go for “Chicago” in my sound.
R: So you’re teaching and playing a lot now. Can we expect anything else from you in the near future?
MH: I’m actually not teaching right now, I moved to New York in September and I had to make the tough decision to let go both of my teaching gigs in Chicago to really chase this thing in New York. But like I said, teaching is one of my passions along with performance so I’m definitely looking for teaching opportunities.
But I’m really just focused on really molding my group, my sound, and my vision and just really getting for this next project. I’m trying to play my music and put my unique sound out there as much as possible. That’s my thing, and I think that I will try to accomplish that through live performances and recording this next project.
R: What struck you about New York’s music scene vs. Chicago’s scene?
MH: One thing that I really, really love about New York and the thing I’m still amazed by to this day is that on any given day I can wake up and say, “I want to hear some badass music” and have several options. Chicago’s a great city and I love the scene; it’s very eclectic, artistic and soulful, but it’s not as big as New York’s scene. There’s much more players in New York and there’s much more places to play in New York. So that’s the thing that really struck me. I can go head some bad music any night of the week. It’s spiritual and motivational because the spirit gets in your bone and it makes you want to be there and I love New York.
R: Are the people on Modern Flows Vol. 1 friends and musicians from Chicago?
MH: Yeah, the core rhythm section is my band. My core band consist of Justin Thomas, Makaya McCraven, Joshua Ramos, and Christopher McBride, but I had three special guests: Tumelo Khoza, Meagan McNeal, and this guy I met in college, Keith Winford.
R: Could you talk about your decision to use vibes instead of a guitar or a keyboard?
MH: I like how the space that the vibraphone leaves when it comps. The vibes is a limited instrument compared to a piano where you can play lots of notes at once. The vibraphone has the ability to leave a lot of space and you have to think more rhythmic instead of chordal. Justin Thomas – the guy in my band – is kind of perfect of that. Adding the vibes really opened up the music. I had piano and I tried guitar before and it was never quite right for me; it clogged up space. The vibraphone definitely opened things up.
R: Not to get dark or salty on the scene, but I think that the combination of jazz and hip-hop nowadays is definitely the “cool” thing to do, and I definitely thought Modern Flows Vol. 1 was unique.
MH: Yeah, combining and jazz is the thing now; everyone is doing that kind of sound. I see where they’re coming from because it’s the music we listen to. It’s the popular music of our community and it’s the popular music of the day just like jazz was popular music back in the day. So this is just my take of what everyone else is doing and putting my unique thing.
Scroll down to preview ‘Modern Flows Vol. I’ in its entirety. Order your copy of Marquis Hill’s ‘Modern Flows Vol. 1’ via bandcamp and iTunes.
Marquis Hill Loves Chicago And All That Jazz
Chicago has always been known as a major music hub in the Midwest, producing artists from a number of genres, including blues, hip-hop, house and jazz. The windy city’s uniquely modern style of jazz has attracted both veteran and young musicians to join its ranks.
The well-known Chicago Jazz Festival, which was organized to honor the legendary Duke Ellington, has featured many artists, including industry idols Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Trumpeter, composer and native Chicagoan Marquis Hill is already on his way to leaving his mark on the genre. He’s won numerous competitions, including the International Trumpet Guild in 2012, and in 2014, he took top honor at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition, which is considered as one of the most prestigious awards in the industry.
Hill’s latest album Modern Flows Vol. 1 showcases his unique talent and highlights his skills as one of Chicago’s top trumpet players. Brooklyn Radio’s Lara Gamble had a chance to catch up with the musician to learn where he got his start and what fans can expect from him in the future.
How old were you when you fell in love with music?
I fell in love with music at a very young age. I’m going to say fourth or fifth grade. I started playing the drums in fourth grade, and I switched to the trumpet in fifth grade. I’m going to say that’s where my love really started when I discovered jazz. My elementary school band director actually gave me my first jazz CD. It was a Lee Morgan CD entitled Candy, and after I went home and put that on, I just kind of fell in love with it. That’s all she wrote from there.
What led to you taking an interest in trumpet?
Actually, my older cousin played the trumpet. Like I said, I started off with drums. I lived in apartment building where I could hear my cousin practicing above me, so I wanted to be like my cousin, and I switched to the trumpet in the fifth grade.
How does Chicago influence your sound?
I would say it influences my sound in a lot of ways, just the history of the city and being around the mentors that I was around going to the places like The Velvet Lounge and The Apartment Lounge, especially going to those places at a very young age. I started going to jam sessions at nightclubs like The Velvet and The Apartment Lounge, I would say around freshmen year of high school, which is really young.
But Fred Anderson who is the owner of The Velvet, and Von Freeman who ran the jam session at The Apartment Lounge, they knew that we were hungry for the music, and we weren’t really trying to start trouble. We just wanted to come and play, so they would allow us to come in and play at a very young age.
Who would name as early influences or mentors?
Professor Ronald Carter from Northern Illinois University, Ernest Dawkins, Fred Anderson, Von Freeman, Diane Ellis, which is my elementary school band director, and Tito Carillo was one of my first trumpet teachers. So, I was fortunate enough to have really good mentors growing up in Chicago.
How did The Blacktet come together?
The Blacktet came together after I finished grad school. I thought it was time for me to really get my voice out there, and I really wanted to put a band together. At this point, I had been working as a sideman with a bunch of different groups, but I really wanted to put my own band out there and really try to get my voice.
So, I had a friend that lived in Orlando who had a band called The Bluetet, and I thought that was very cool. I just wanted to take one of my favorite colors and just really name my ensemble something different instead of something like quintet or quartet. So, I came up with the concept of The Blacktet.
How did it feel to win the Thelonious Monk International Trumpet Competition in 2014?
Oh, man. I’m still floating on cloud nine. It was definitely an honor and a pleasure to be a part of it. I still can’t believe it. It was amazing. It’s the most prestigious award there is in jazz. I’m now on a list of, in my eyes, a lot of the jazz greats of my time, so it’s an honor to have won and be a part of that legacy.
Your album Modern Flows Vol. 1 dropped last year. How do you feel it was received?
I think it was received really well. Before this Monk thing, I had a pretty small fan base. I’ve been doing everything independently, so I’ve got my fans who really support and have been following me since I put my first record out. I think it was received really well.
I would say it’s one of my favorite projects of the four projects that I’ve put out. I wish I could have had it on a higher platform where I could actually get it out to radio more and just work it from the press angle a little bit more, but timing was bad. I think the project altogether was received well.
Do you have any plans for the remainder of 2015?
I’ve got a couple festivals this summer and a bunch of things with my group coming up in June. Just a bunch of random things. You know, us working musicians, we just go, and we follow where we’re needed. I plan to record in October and release my next record for Concord early 2016. So, the rest of this year is just about writing music and playing this summer and just getting ready for the record in October.
Do you have anything else that you want to add or promote?
Definitely the record, Modern Flows. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Also, I have a new website: www.MarquisHill.com. You can check there for dates and upcoming shows. And go check out the music if anybody hasn’t!
https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/marquis-hill-the-way-we-play/
Rising star Marquis Hill celebrates the city that shaped him: Chicago
Trumpeter Marquis Hill will launch his major-label debut album “The Way We Play” in his hometown at the Green Mill. (Deneka Peniston)
by Howard Reich
June 20, 2016
Chicago Tribune
This will be one of the biggest weekends of trumpeter Marquis Hill's career, and, of course, he chose to spend it in Chicago.
True, Hill — who was born, raised and trained here — moved to New York a couple of months before he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition in November 2014.
The prize came with a $25,000 scholarship and a major-label record deal, and on Friday and Saturday nights Hill will launch "The Way We Play" (Concord Music Group) at the Green Mill.
"I definitely wanted to have the first release in Chicago, because that's my hometown," says Hill, speaking from New York a few hours before heading on a Russian tour with bassist Marcus Miller.
"The Mill is one of the oldest jazz clubs and one of my favorite jazz clubs in the city. The Mill is a historic place. All the acts who come through town play there."
As for the recording, "it's my homage to Chicago, because that's my hometown."
Hill isn't merely paying lip service to the city that shaped him musically and in other ways. Practically everything about "The Way We Play" embraces and celebrates this city, from the album cover's image of the muscular downtown skyline and four red stars evoking the city's flag to Hill's prose on the liner notes, which includes these words:
"Lastly, I shout a huge 'THANK YOU!' to the place that has molded me in many ways into the strong, proud, black man I am — yes — to the city of broad shoulders, my city, Chi-town, Chicago! Thank you!"
Indeed Hill's musical identity was forged in the city's schools and nightclubs and concert halls by Chicago's great musicians, famous and not.
"He came from an elementary school, Dixon, on the South Side, Diane Ellis teaches there … and she gets her hands on them at that right age and introduces them to jazz music — the cultural significance, the leading figures in the music, who the greats are," Chicago guitarist Bobby Broom told me when Hill won the Monk competition.
Broom had coached Hill as part of Ravinia's Jazz Scholar Program and early on came to believe in his potential.
"Marquis — you could tell he had something," added Broom. "He kind of had — how can I describe it? — we call it 'the vibe.' It's a way of saying he kind of understood some of the things that you need: ways to carry yourself, how to make a solo. But he was just a nascent improviser, getting himself together."
That he has done, judging by the inventiveness and element of surprise that pervade "The Way We Play." Leading his long-running Blacktet plus guests, Hill opens the album unconventionally, a female voice introducing the members of band while the Blacktet plays a jazz version of the Chicago Bulls' famous theme music: like heroes entering the arena. Before long, we're hearing Chicago poet Harold Green III delivering words while the Blacktet simmers in the background, the poet resurfacing later in the album in Donald Byrd's "Fly Little Bird Fly." Green's words bristle with black pride and hope in the face of adversity.
"I'm just a huge fan of spoken word," says Hill, whose previous, independently released albums similarly drew upon text.
"I think it's such a powerful way to get the message across with the music. Spoken word and jazz go together hand-in-hand to me. It's just a natural thing. I plan on doing it the rest of my career."
It certainly works quite well here, Hill having given Green "a little description of the two (songs) he was on and what I was thinking, and he just ran with it and came up with these beautiful pieces."
By referencing Sandra Bland, the Chicago-area woman who was found dead in a Texas jail cell last year, and other contemporary issues, Hill and Green do not flinch from making powerful social statements on life in America today.
"I was always taught that the music should be a reflection of what's happening in the community, a reflection of what's going on today," says Hill. "It should have a message behind it, and it should be saying something. Harold just took that concept to a whole 'nother level."
Unlike Hill's previous recordings, which focused on original music, "The Way We Play" features mostly jazz standards, but these have been reconceived according to Hill's personal aesthetic. Familiar tunes by Herbie Hancock and Thelonious Monk and romantic ballads such as "My Foolish Heart" and "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" sound fresh, bright and immensely attractive in Hill's hands.
The front-line playing by Hill and longtime colleague Christopher McBride on alto saxophone proves instantly recognizable, while the vibraphone work of Justin "Justefan" Thomas and the pulsing rhythms of drummer Makaya McCraven, bassist Joshua Ramos and guest percussionist Juan Pastor drive the music ever forward.
In all, a major-label debut that Hill — and Chicago — can be proud of.
hreich@tribpub.com
Twitter @howardreich
When: 9 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway
Tickets: $15; 773-878-5552 or www.greenmilljazz.com
https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/marquis-hill-the-way-we-play/
by Evan Haga
October 19, 2016
JazzTimes
Marc Monaghan
"A comprehensive vision": Marquis Hill
Marquis Hill, not yet 30 and based in both his hometown of Chicago and in New York, is one of the most promising jazz musicians to gain a national reputation in recent memory. He’s a remarkably gifted trumpeter, with a technical command that can evoke heroes like Donald Byrd and Freddie Hubbard without getting too close to the source, and a composer-bandleader whose music and working group, the Blacktet, boast a comprehensive vision. Hill received first place at the 2014 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition, and this Concord Jazz debut is the result of a generous prize package. And although it follows a few fine if modestly distributed recordings, it comes off like a definitive introduction.
Hill’s previous albums featured original music, but this one is filled with standards and not-so-standards-an old strategy for a hotshot player making a big entrance, and one that Hill revises by using his Blacktet instead of a prestige rhythm section. Of course, nothing better betrays the true nature of musicianship than a standard tune.
With alto saxophonist Christopher McBride, vibraphonist Justin Thomas, bassist Joshua Ramos and drummer Makaya McCraven, a rising progressive-jazz star in his own right, Hill melds live laptop-sounding rhythms with taut, contemporary postbop fire on Gigi Gryce’s “Minority” and Horace Silver’s “Moon Rays.” “Maiden Voyage” is turned into atmosphere, and “Straight, No Chaser” sidesteps the beat-making influence for hard-core swing. A closing take on Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” featuring only Hill, Ramos and guest percussionist Juan Pastor on cajón, is delightfully candid, like eavesdropping on a festival greenroom.
His recent concert at MoMA included included Joel Ross (vibraphone), Chris Smith (bass), and Jonathan Barber (drums). Sunday, July 16 2017 -The Museum of Modern Art-NYC
The Marquis Hill Project at MoMA
August 20, 2017
AllAboutJazz
Marquis Hill, a native of Chicago, is a highly skilled musician with a bent toward soulful post-bop. He holds degrees in music from Northern Illinois University and DePaul University. In 2014 he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition. He has performed with a wide array of artists, including Marcus Miller, Benny Golson, and Rodney Whitaker.
His recent concert at MoMA included included Joel Ross (vibraphone), Chris Smith (bass), and Jonathan Barber (drums). Sunday, July 16 2017 -The Museum of Modern Art-NYC
THE MUSIC OF MARQUIS HILL: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH MARQUIS HILL:
