Marquis Hill, an internationally renowned musician, composer, and bandleader from Chicago, aims to dissolve the barriers between musical genres. He views a diverse array of styles, including contemporary and classic jazz, hip hop, R&B, Chicago house, and neo-soul, as interconnected facets of a shared African-American creative heritage. Hill explains this philosophy by saying, “It all comes from the same tree… They simply blossomed from different branches”.
This instinct for limitless listening came naturally to Hill, rooted in a household that played Motown, R&B artists like the Isley Brothers and Marvin Gaye, alongside the jazz records he later discovered. He firmly believes that “the music is all the same.”
This expansive vision is central to his new album, Composers Collective: Beyond the Jukebox. The project celebrates the work of Hill’s cherished colleagues and friends, many from Chicago, whom he invited to compose a piece specifically for the album. The program features six of Hill’s own compositions, plus pieces by notable artists like Ernest Dawkins, Gary Bartz, Jeff Parker, Marcus Strickland, SABA, Geof Bradfield, and Matt Gold.