Michael Dease Big Band Devotes The Sleeper to the Music of Composer Gregg Hill

Trombonist Michael Dease and his big band release The Sleeper: The Music of Gregg Hill on Friday, Oct. 30, via Cold Plunge Records. It is the first big-band album Dease has devoted entirely to Hill, the composer whose tunes he has recorded on a series of earlier albums, BroadwayWorld reported on Oct. 28.

The album's premise is that each of its ten Hill compositions was handed to a different arranger. The list is Jason Hainsworth, Bill Cunliffe Jr., Altin Sencalar, David Gibson, Matt White, Gina Benalcazar-Lopez, Jordyn Davis, Helen Sung, Ben Markley and Michael Philip Mossman. Trumpeter Eddie Henderson and alto saxophonist Virginia MacDonald are the featured guest soloists.

"I want to look at the big band format as a canvas and a reflection rather than a historical tome," Dease said in the release announcement. "This is the first time I've dived deep into a composer's repository of material for a large ensemble."

Dease's previous Hill projects include The Other Shoe (2023), for which Dease wrote all the arrangements, followed by Found in Space (2024) and City Life (2025). His most recent big-band album, Return Trajectory, came out earlier in 2026.

Several tracks bring in further guests. The 11-minute opener, "Mr. Pea is Welcomed to the Pod," arranged by Matt White, features alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. Sencalar's arrangement of "La Canción" spotlights saxophonist Sharel Cassity and Kirk MacDonald, and Benalcazar-Lopez sets "Go Figure!" in a Latin groove. On Markley's "Sloe Gin Fizz," Dease switches to baritone horn alongside trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. Bassist Rodney Whitaker is featured on Cunliffe's "Aftershock," vibraphonist Jalen Baker appears on Davis's "Common Ground," and Mossman's "Jack the Shaker" includes Hill's grandson, Jack Covert, on shaker.

The album was recorded on May 18-19, 2025, at Troubadour Recording Studio in Lansing, Michigan. Matt White mixed it, John McClaggan mastered it, and writer Willard Jenkins contributed the liner notes. A video for the project has been posted on YouTube ahead of the release.