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| Michael Dease, Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill (Origin Records) The title itself is revealing. A clever play on words of the old '60s sci-fi show Lost in Space, it immediately suggests an irreverent wit and slightly twisted perspective; qualities that also permeate the unique music of prolific Michigan-based composer Gregg Hill. How this fairly obscure presence on the national music scene has managed to garner such a fervent following remains a mystery to those of us outside the Great Lakes State. Converts include bassist-educator Rodney Whitaker, Director of Jazz Studies at Michigan State University who has released three albums dedicated to the music of Gregg Hill, and two fellow MSU faculty members in guitarist Randy Napoleon, who has released two volumes of Gregg Hill music, and trombonist-saxophonist Michael Dease, who has now put out two to date, with plans for a third. What is it about this 78-year-old composer's music that has attracted so many accomplished, acclaimed musicians to pay homage to him. As Dease explained, "I've never recorded an album of someone else's music, so it's really a leap for me to do this. And I wouldn't do it if I didn't believe in the material." Count me in on the cult. Hill's idiosyncratic signature bares a strong resemblance to Frank Zappa's more ambitious large ensemble works like The Grand Wazoo (or the posthumously released Wazoo, a 1972 live recording from Boston with a 20-piece ensemble), in that his tunes easily morph from 20th century classical to jazz to rock to Avant Garde and back again. These very structured, highly contrapuntal pieces unfold in sections with chamber-like intricacy. But like Zappa, Hill also leaves room for significant stretching, with built-in solo sections allowing for maximum exploration. Dease takes full advantage of that blowing aspect with his band of stellar soloists, including Rudresh Mahanthappa, Virginia MacDonald, Sharel Cassity, Jason Hainsworth, Matt White, Nanami Haruta, Bill Cunliffe, Katie Thiroux, Colleen Clark and Dease himself alternating between trombone and baritone sax. The leader's wife, percussionist Gwendolyn Dease, another MSU faculty member, adds to the Zappa-esque flavor of this music with her marimba work recalling the key contributions that former Juilliard percussion major Ruth Underwood made to FZ's adventurous bands of the late '60s and early '70s. "Gregg Hill is a deep cat, " said Dease, whose previous tribute to the composer was 2023's The Other Shoe. "He's done a lot of jobs in his lifetime. He drove an 18-wheeler for a decent stretch, then transitioned into technology and finance tech field in the 90s. And the whole time he wrote music. And now he's publishing his fifth book of lead sheets of his music. The guy is just prolific." While the bulk of Dease's recorded output as a leader had been primarily straight ahead, in the tradition of his early trombone role models Curtis Fuller and J.J. Johnson as well as his Juilliard mentor Wycliffe Gordon, things changed when he got introduced to Gregg Hill's singular music through bassist Rodney Whitaker, who called him to play on a couple of tracks from his 2021 tribute album, Outrospection. "Something I really dig about Gregg's writing is that his melodies are direct, they're unpretentious to me and they balance lyricism with a mathematical sense of logic. That's where you get these cellular bits that repeat, that have elements of riff music that could be from the territory band era. But then that riff thing also happened through bebop and fusion, and you hear that connection there. I often find myself singing these little cellular bits. They become earworms, in a sense, " adds Dease. The odd musical shapes and suite-like pieces on Found in Space offer a rich diversity of elements that are both complex and endlessly refreshing. As Dease put it, "There's a lot of beautiful deception in the way his melodies change direction and flow into unusual chord choices." Take the opener, "The Last Pop Tune, " for instance. Arranged by trumpeter White, Dease's longtime colleague going back to their participation together in Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead program in 2002, it's a tricky tune that doesn't sit in one time signature for too long. As Dease explained, "It starts in five and it goes to six very quickly. Then it goes back to five. Then it goes to three, then it's in five again, then it goes to 4/4 for the solos." While following the detailed map of that time-jumping tune, White incorporates lots of counterpoint between woodwinds and brass while also giving free reign for pianist Cunliffe, flutist Cassity and White (on muted trumpet) to explore harmonically on their extended solos. And as Dease pointed out, "The only thing I said to the guys who arranged these tunes was, 'listen, Gregg's material is great. Leave his material alone and write around it. I don't want our tunes to have just hints of Gregg. This music deserves to be reflected as the composer intended." Pianist Cunliffe switches to Fender Rhodes on the title track, which he also arranged. Opening with some busy contrapuntal conversation on top of his minimalist keyboard motif, it features strong solos from Dease on bari and White on trumpet. "Matt is a very fluid and adventurous soloist, " said Dease of the trumpeter. "And he also has the blues and swing in his play, which is kind of what I'm all about. You know, where the past pushes you through to the future." Manhanthappa also wails on alto sax over a walking bass-fueled swing section while Cunliffe turns in a hip Rhodes solo before Dease unleashes on bari at the tag. "One for Rodney, " arranged by Joseph Herbst, is named for staunch Hill supporter Whitaker. Following the quirky "Mission Impossible" meets Monk's "Green Chimneys" opening section, it settles into a swinging piano-bass-drums section that showcases bassist Thiroux's solo prowess. As the eccentric tune progresses, it showcases some fiercely unbridled alto sax trading between Mahanthappa and Cassity (her lone track here on alto) over a surging band ostinato. And Clark wails over the top of some simultaneous soloing near the end of this most complex number. "The Stray Moonduck, " named for a lone duck spotted one night on the pond near Hill's home in East Lansing, Michigan, is a beautiful showcase for both Dease's earthy, blues-drenched trombone chops and Haruta's more sensitive approach on trombone. "I did the intro and solo first, then that's Nanami on a second trombone solo, " explained the leader. "That's not something that happens much. Two trombone players don't usually share solos unless it's a Jay and Kai type thing (a reference to the 1957 Columbia album featuring trombonists J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding going toe-to-toe). But I felt like our strengths fit these different areas of improvisation on this piece. The guttural, raunchy area of trombone is a forte of mine and the more introspective side, that's right in Nanami's wheelhouse. So, I thought it made a lot of sense to let her shine in that more nuanced situation." Dease added that he met the promising 22-year-old trombonist Haruta while on tour in Japan. "She was working seven nights a week in Tokyo, and I convinced her to come to Michigan State, get a two-year degree and then get more well-known in the States. She's fantastic and has already been doing great things." "The Puppet Thief, " arranged by Cunliffe, is a dynamic Kenton-ish big band offering with allusions to Duke Pearson's "Jeannine" along the way. Bassist Thiroux turns in an outstanding solo full of double stops and melodic invention (as on "One for Rodney, " you can faintly hear her scatting simultaneously along with her improvised lines). Cunlilffe takes off on a Rhodes solo here against her steady walking bass lines. MacDonald's flute solo further elevates the proceedings, then Hainsworth enters with some potent tenor statements played in conversation against brass and woodw write your comments about the article :: © 2024 Jazz News :: home page |