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Marquis Hill: New Gospel Revisited

By Chris May
March 4, 2022
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Chicago-born trumpeter Marquis Hill released his first album while still in college and in 2022, just over a decade later, he has retooled it on New Gospel Revisited, recorded live in his hometown with a fresh lineup and tweaked instrumentation. It is a terrific disc.

Like his near contemporary and fellow trumpeter

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah

trumpet
b.1983

" data-original-title="" title="">Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Hill holds his music to be part of a broad musical continuum that includes genres other than jazz, notably hip hop. Also like Scott, Hill on occasion (though not this one) uses spoken word. This bigger musical picture is implied in New Gospel Revisited, but with a light touch. The album is, fundamentally, a celebration of the hard bop that drew Hill to jazz in his early teens, after a high-school teacher gave him a copy of

Lee Morgan

trumpet
1938 - 1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Lee Morgan's Candy (Blue Note, 1958).

Like the London-based trumpeter

Mark Kavuma

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Kavuma, who also wears hard bop on his sleeve, Hill is no mere revivalist but a creative musician extending the form. His hard bop is an attitude rather than a codified style, and its accretions, hip-hop rhythms among them, place it firmly in the present day. On New Gospel Revisited, Hill fronts a sextet of youngish lions which is completed by tenor saxophonist

Walter Smith III

saxophone, tenor
b.1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Walter Smith III, vibraphonist

Joel Ross

vibraphone

" data-original-title="" title="">Joel Ross, pianist

James Francies

keyboards

" data-original-title="" title="">James Francies, bassist

Harish Raghavan

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Harish Raghavan and drummer

Kendrick Scott

drums
b.1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Kendrick Scott. The material from the 2011 album is expanded to include features for each of these players (see Tracks, below, for details).

Sumptuous yet sinewy, sleek yet tough, and not shy of being pretty on occasion, the album is distinguished both by the quality of the individual musicians, and their cohesion as a unit, but also by the standard of Hill's writing and arranging. The arrangements sometimes suggest the partnership of trumpeter

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis and tenor saxophonist

Wayne Shorter

saxophone
1933 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Wayne Shorter, roughly circa Davis' album Nefertiti (Columbia, 1968), something that may derive in part from the fact that one of Hill's college tutors was

Ron Carter

bass
b.1937

" data-original-title="" title="">Ron Carter, the bassist in Davis' quintet from 1964 to 1968. But as Leslie Nielsen put it in the movie Airplane!, that's not important right now. What is important is that you get to hear this wonderful album.

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Track Listing

Intro; Law And Order; Walter Speaks (featuring Walter Smith III); The Believer; Oracle (featuring Kendrick Scott); New Gospel; Lullaby (featuring Joel Ross); Autumn; New Paths; A Portrait Of Fola; Perpetual (featuring Harish Raghavan); The Thump; Farewell (featuring James Francies).

Personnel

Marquis Hill

trumpet

Walter Smith III

saxophone, tenor

Joel Ross

vibraphone

James Francies

keyboards

Harish Raghavan

bass

Kendrick Scott

drums

Album information

Title: New Gospel Revisited | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Edition Records

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