It is from this context of stylist diverseness and creative effervescent that the young trumpeter Marquis Hill (b. 1987, USA) descends, a musician who, like other musicians of similar age, such as Ambrose Akinmusire, or older but contemporary musicians (Ken Vandermark, Ernest Dawkins or Rob Mazurek, for example), has contributed to the movement of continuous reinvention and expansion of Chicago’s idiosyncratic musical identity. With a solid academic curricula, including studies in the Northern Illinois University (where he studied under the influence of the legendary bassist Ron Carter) and the reputed DePaul University’s School of Music, Hill got involved in the city’s jazz scene while he still very young, having performed as sideman of musicians such as Von Freeman and Fred Anderson. Marquis Hill published his first record under his own name in 2011 and, since then, he has maintained an intense activity both as leader as well as composer, having developed an unique musical identity based on the confluence of jazz’s canonical principles, rooted in hard swing and post-bop tendencies, with other stylistic expressions such as hip-hop, R&B and spoken word, therefore inventing a multifaceted vocabulary, fully adapted to the musical context of the twenty-first century.

Hill’s most recent studio album, entitled The Way We Play, released in 2016, revels a refined composer, interested in the renovation of jazz through the revisiting of a personal selection of the work of some of the greatest jazz composers (Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, among others), lyrically reinterpreted through a contemporary musical sensibility capable of making music travelling in time in search for other emotions and meanings. In this project, Marquis Hill is accompanied by a group, the Blacktet, created specifically with the purpose of channelling the leader’s musical visions and formed by a set of remarkable instrumentalists, including saxophonist Christian McBride and drummer Makaya McCraven, among others.

In Guimarães Jazz, the trumpeter will be joined by an ensemble formed by young musicians who are the living proof of the current vitality of Chicago’s jazz scene, namely the vibraphonist Joel Ross, the bassist Jeremiah Hunt and the drummer Jonathan Pinson, musicians of undeniable talent who, despite their youth, already have an impressive history of collaborations and creative experiences alongside some of jazz’s greatest figures, such as Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, as well as with some of the most promising contemporary jazz musicians. It is important to highlight, however, the presence of the saxophonist Logan Richardson, who in the last ten years has been developing a peculiar and highly challenging work as composer and leader. Therefore, we may expect form this concert not only a technically sophisticated musical moment but also the opportunity of finding in the music of this group some clues about the near future of jazz, based on new matrixes of expression.