JazzTimes is honored to present the premiere of the video for “To You I Promise” by trumpeter and composer Marquis Hill. The track will be featured on Hill’s eighth studio album as a leader, Love Tape, to be released Oct. 11 by Black Unlimited Music Group.
Besides Hill on flügelhorn, Mike King on keyboards, Charles Haynes on synths and electronics, Junius Paul on electric bass, and Marcus Gilmore on drums, “To You I Promise” features the audio editing skills of Jamal Science and album producer Makaya McCraven—as well as a vocal cameo by actress Phylicia Rashad.
Although the track is underpinned by a slinky-smooth groove that suggests a romantic nocturnal interlude, the web of interlocking horn parts by Hill blend with King and Haynes’ keyboard fantasia to take the listener somewhere much spacier. And Rashad’s words about loving oneself add a further spiritual angle to the proceedings. For Love Tape, Hill went looking online for interviews with women that addressed the topic of self-love and compiled a series of quotes that run through the album, giving it a central theme; Eartha Kitt and Abbey Lincoln are among the other luminaries besides Rashad whose voices can be heard on various tracks.
“Women are an essential part of who we are,” Hill says, “yet their opinions are often overlooked and disregarded.” Consider Love Tape a small attempt at changing that state of affairs.
To find out more about Marquis Hill, visit his website.
