Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
“The secret is to surrender to the music and let it take you where it wants to go,” says Marquis Hill. “Understanding and vulnerability are key. It’s bigger than just you.”
(Photo: Michael Jackson)Shortly after his major label connection with Concord Records (contingent with winning the über prestigious Thelonious Monk Trumpet Competition in 2014), Marquis Hill decided to go it alone. “[Concord] wanted to wait on the next record, and I was impatient to put out more music,” recalls the Chicago-born trumpeter, who’d already self-released two albums on Skip Tone, an independent label started with a friend years before his Monk competition moment.
Post Concord, his own Black Unlimited Music has dropped some 14 albums, including The Poet, Meditation Tape, Modern Flows, Love Tape, Soul Sign and 2024’s ambitious Composers Collective (Beyond The Jukebox), plus he’s in hot demand, contributing to at least 15 side projects.
Notwithstanding his self-designated career drive, when you witness Hill perform, though he can blow at length and virtuosically, there’s never the sense he’s elbowing anyone aside. Despite an imposing 6-foot 1-inch frame, and choice chops, he is, as the title of his new EP implies, first and foremost, eager to “surrender” to the music.
Sweet Surrender is quite the unimposing manifesto. Hill’s music is sensual and, at first take, the title phrase might seem like an R&B-infused “get down” reference, but Hill adds the parenthetical “Beautifulism (Aria),” which expands to generalized, wonder-filled optimism.
“What is the last thing you’ll surrender to?” he inquires of friends and associates. “At what point will you cease the struggle and let go?” In a vintage cover image to the project, Hill’s father is depicted being baptized. He assumes his father was seeking rebirth, a fresh start, absolution.
Hill does not claim to be a Christian, though he grew up around Chatham Presbyterian and Baptist churches on Chicago’s South Side. “My mother eventually gave her blessing to seek a congregation of my choice, after raising me in a church of old-school worshippers,” he remembers. “But I interpret the Bible my own way, not necessarily as instructed by a preacher. There are great stories, lessons, analogies and parables there that you can apply to life.”
“Bible Study,” gently ascending like a hot air balloon of glory, is a salient cut on the EP (which runs a fraction under half an hour, but doesn’t shortchange). Kicked off with an “exhale” from Junius Paul’s bass, the chill click of Marcus Gilmore’s sticks and Makaya McCraven’s brushes on snare, with Mike King on organ/piano, “Bible Study” could warm every holy house in the land, perchance convert the godless. Vocalist Manessah, with about 20 overdubs, convincingly and powerfully creates an entire choir, as Hill’s flugel-like warmth inflates the airship.
“While rhythm moves the body, pretty melody and harmony pulls the heartstrings,” Hill says. “I conceived ‘Bible Study’ as an almost meditative, never-ending round.”
Despite the seductive, mellow message of Hill’s horn, he has a fiery side, and his taste for complex hip-hop beats at base (courtesy of Gilmore) act as counterweight to floaty lyricism. He began as a drummer in 4th grade, schooled in the hard swing of Basie and Ellington under Diane Ellis at Dixon Elementary. “I started out in the realm of straighthead jazz but learned that jazz, blues and gospel all come from the same root of swing and groove.”
At the root of Sweet Surrender are sessions recorded by Steve Marek at Reelsounds in Skokie, Illinois, with a core trio of Paul, Gilmore and additional drummer Justin Brown. Then Hill cast his net to associates from Chicago (Amyna Love, Matt Gold, Manessah), Los Angeles (SML’s Jeremiah Chiu) and vocalist Zacchae’us Paul (originally from Atlanta), plus Brooklyn-based MCs Kumbayaa and Cisco Swank. The latter features on the edgy “Free #1B,” which is propelled by Chiu’s futuristic, gamelan-like modular synth rhythms, Gilmore’s cooking beats and Paul’s humming underbelly, putting in mind the compressed, urban intensity of Meshell Ndegeocello’s conceptions. Hill seeks out eclectic MCs who’ve “taken the time to cultivate themselves” and recognized Kumbayaa (“Free #1A”) possessed an unique style that was “unapologetically herself.”
Though Hill can paint post-bop and smooth, he also allows himself the wah-wah infused scree of electric Miles and isn’t loath to stomp on a hard-rock power riff, as on “Blues,” which features Gold. “Matt and I traveled the world together with Makaya’s group, and he’s versed in all classic guitar sounds, any genre or time period.”
Longtime collaborator and another Chicago musician, Juan Pastor, adds percussion on two of three recastings of the title track. “Juan is one of my colleagues from NIU; he’s from Lima and a master of Peruvian rhythms, which added just what I was looking for for ‘Sweet Surrender,’” says Hill.
Another guest star who makes a splash is alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, who corkscrews audaciously through Hill’s harmonized curtaining and Love’s tidal sighs on “Water.”
“The scriptures talk about water,” says Hill. “Water connects with feelings and emotions in the spiritual realm, where fire represents passions and desires. Emmanuel is so fluid, he’s one of the young monsters on the scene; he added his contribution at the Honey Jar studio in New York and knew exactly what to do.”
A key word for Hill is “trust” and the way he organically brings his projects together relies on tried and trusted ingredients, a wealth of spice from fertile creative communities, principally those of Chicago and New York, where he abides in Harlem. With a stunning, instantly recognizable flow on his instrument, uncommonly classy, it’s the full picture that Hill envisions. He came up steeped in the jazz jam. “Onstage in a musical situation there might be a stubborn character that kills the vibe and moment. The secret is to surrender to the music and let it take you where it wants to go. Understanding and vulnerability are key. It’s bigger than just you.” DB
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
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