Marquis Hill

“. . . a smart post-bop player . . . incorporating elements of hip-hop and  R&B.” —The New Yorker

“. . . a fluid improvisational style . . . recalls the crisp elegance of hard-bop stalwart Donald Byrd.”—DownBeat

A trumpeter and flugelhornist possessing enviable poise and a far-reaching vision, Marquis Hill is an intensely eloquent improviser who embraces a broad spectrum of Black American music. Based in New York City for the past decade, he’s a Chicago-reared master, and he absorbed the city’s independent ethic. Making his festival debut, Hill arrives at Stanford at the age of 37 having long embraced his role as a guiding force for younger players, much like he was mentored by Bobby Broom, Willie Pickens, Tito Carrillo and other Chicago greats through the Ravinia Jazz Scholars program. Winning a series of prestigious awards, culminating with the 2014 Thelonious Monk International Trumpet Competition, catapulted Hill into national prominence. Recording prolifically, mostly for his own Black Unlimited Music Group label, he’s documented his encompassing musical world, forging a highly personal synthesis of modern and contemporary jazz, hip-hop, R&B, Chicago house, and neo-soul. For Hill the various styles are essential elements of the profound African-American creative heritage he’s determined to champion. “It all comes from the same tree,” he says. “They simply blossomed from different branches.” His latest release, 2023’s Rituals + Routines, features his potent working band and special guests like vibraphonist Joel Ross and saxophonist Braxton Cook on a program that seamlessly blends jazz interplay, hip-hop-infused rhythms and socially conscious spoken-word passages. No matter what idiom he’s drawing on in the moment, his tone evokes trumpet history, touching on Miles’ canny use of silence, Woody Shaw’s intervallic leaps, and Lee Morgan’s bluesy swagger.