New Gospel Revisited
This stunning album amounts to an artist replanting in a profoundly fertile motherlode of his evolution by reinterpreting the material of his very first album. The harvest is a quantum artistic leap
Chicago-native Marquis Hill is already one of the most talented and resourceful trumpeter-composers in jazz. Here he assembles a group of band leaders (several Blue Note label artists) and the quality quotient spikes, in this (largely) live performance, a testament to the high art of the improviser. The floating, portentous “Intro” arrests our attention, and the ensuing “Law & Order” unfurls waves a of witness, drama and testament. Tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III enters a quietly enchanting storyteller but inevitably lifts us to cathartic cries of betrayal of justice, of true law and order. Vibist Joel Ross and pianist James Francies suggest, in their heavily populated lines, the bustle of the hoi polloi, and the pianist especially conveys a boiling tension in his hurtling momentum surges. This is music you feel in your bones, your whole being.
On “The Believer” everyone steps out hot and gives it up, as believers in, if nothing else, their extraordinary collective power which, by compounding exponentially, suggests a pipeline to some higher power. New gospel, indeed. The tune exemplifies Hill’s compositional gifts, crafting edge-of-the-precipice pathways for improvs, suspended by oddly beguiling melodies. His winning of the esteemed Thelonious Monk International Competition in 2014 underscored his compelling promise. He’s admittedly out of the hard-bop tradition of Lee Morgan but deepened by expressive textures suggesting fellow Chicago brass avant-avatar Wadada Leo Smith, and aspects of many great trumpeters between.
