BEBE MILLER
Apr 1, 2025
SARA MEARNS | ARTISTS AT THE CENTER
Apr 7, 2025
Available June 20, 2025
Origin Records
NYC jazz musicians, trombonist Michael Dease and composer Gregg Hill have immersed themselves in the cacophony and thrill of the city’s streets and clubs. They took these formative influences, synthesized them with outsized city emotions and produced a multi-faceted albmum City Life.
“We all become New Yorkers once we spend some time in the city,” Dease says. “Of course there’s that element of sophistication that we all rise to meet, but no matter how cultured you become, you can’t get away from the grit and the rawness that New York exhibits.”
Available June 20, 2025 via Origin Records, City Life is the third album that Dease and Hill have crafted together – this one staggering double album primarily focused on the compositions of the prolific Mr. Hill. Both feature the stellar rhythm section of bassist Linda May Han Oh and master drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, a first-time pairing whose bristling chemistry was a keen stroke of intuition on Dease’s part. For the second album they form the core of a remarkable quintet with pianist Geoffrey Keezer and tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover. Special guests include the trombonist’s daughter, Brooklyn Dease, and his former student, bassist Jared Beckstead-Craan.
These collaborators, and the carefully selected repertoire, bring out a different side of the acclaimed trombonist than many listeners might be used to. Dease is revered as one of the most versatile voices of his generation, but he’s best known as a modern-day torchbearer for the jazz tradition. City Life doesn’t deviate from that tradition so much as detour into some of its more adventurous pathways, with Dease displaying a more rough-hewn and fiery approach while maintaining his virtuosic agility.
In addition to a dozen new Hill compositions, Dease contributed a pair of his own contributions to the mix, both complementing the mood of the session. He also chose a pair of lesser-known pieces by one of his musical idols, J.J. Johnson, one by the late guitarist Emily Remler, another by saxophonist Greg Tardy, and one by his frequent collaborator, composer Sharel Cassity.
Stellar collaborators make City Life a much anticipated album.
C. Ipiotis
