Bassist Richard Hill, Jr., a 2024 Delaware Division of the Arts Established Jazz Composition Fellow, has been deeply involved in making music since his high school days. A Philadelphia native, he grew up with his parents and younger sister in that city’s vibrant jazz milieu. In 2014, his exceptional bass playing garnered him an award from Philly’s legendary home of jazz greats, the Clef Club.
Hill’s hectic career has included performances with national and international jazz legends such as Betty Carter, Bobby Zankel, Sumi Tonooka, Wynton Marsalis, Bilal, Nicholas Payton, and the United States Army Band. He has also recorded with Javon Jackson and Jill Scott, among others, and was a resident composing artist at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
In 2022, Hill married the love of his life, Comedienne K-Mack, and relocated to Wilmington, DE. Since arriving in the First State, as he did in Philadelphia, he has avidly immersed himself in the jazz scene, collaborating with Delaware artists like Gerald Chavis, Tony Smith, and Fostina Dixon (also a Division Award winner). He is currently the Minister of Music at New Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Newark, DE, under the leadership of Pastor Dontel Hawes, and teaching at Swarthmore College.
Hill’s current—and most personal—project is the dance of diversity, a suite that employs the “rhythms of the various micro communities in Wilmington.” Quoting the great Charlie Parker, Hill feels that “now is the time” for it. He’s also earnest about passing on the jazz tradition, working to guide and inspire the next generation of young musicians. One of his great rewards is “seeing my past students becoming the light.”
One of Hill’s early influences was the great 20th-century giant Billy Strayhorn, “whose use of melodies really touches your soul.” And one of his first professional jobs as a musician was connecting with the music of another great—he worked at Philadelphia’s Annenberg Theatre in a production of Ain’t Misbehavin’, a musical based on the life and music of Fats Waller.
He feels strongly that jazz allows you to “be in the moment. In our digital world, we forget about the importance of the ‘now’.” Hill also enjoys listening to gospel music and putting together Comedy and Jazz concerts with his wife, “that anyone at any age can enjoy.” During the pandemic, as Hill worked to help a brick-and-mortar school “navigate to a virtual model,” he felt fortunate to be able to communicate directly with artists worldwide—from Africa, Europe, and South America.
