Marquis Hill in Chicago

Marquis Hill is an American trumpeter and composer from Chicago who plays post-bop and soul jazz shaped by hip-hop. His Blacktet is central to recordings including New Gospel and the Modern Flows series, while The Way We Play interprets works associated with Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock and other jazz composers. In 2014, Marquis Hill won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition in Los Angeles. He later performed with the Blacktet at NPR Music’s Tiny Desk and returned to material from his debut for a concert recording released as New Gospel Revisited, documenting the ensemble at Constellation in Chicago.

Joel Ross is an American jazz vibraphonist and composer from Chicago. He leads the ensemble Good Vibes and is known for modern post-bop built around close group interplay, documented on the Blue Note albums KingMaker, Who Are You?, The Parable of the Poet and nublues. Good Vibes has performed at New York’s Village Vanguard and at the Newport Jazz Festival, placing Ross in both an intimate jazz-club setting and a major outdoor festival program. His international appearances have also included the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam.