Michael Dease

Trombonist Michael Dease blends warm tone with harmonically daring ideas rooted in hard-swinging post-bop. After earning degrees from Juilliard, he gained recognition during the 2000s through work alongside both established and rising figures such as Illinois Jacquet, Charles Tolliver, Christian McBride, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. On his own D-Clef imprint he issued the 2013 release Coming Home, following earlier efforts like 2007’s Clarity and 2010’s Grace. While serving as Associate Professor of Jazz Trombone at Michigan State University, Dease maintained a steady recording pace with Posi-Tone, delivering the 2014 big-band project Relentless along with smaller-ensemble sets such as 2017’s All These Hands and 2019’s Never More Here. He further examined the compositions of Michigan writer Gregg Hill on the 2023 album The Other Shoe and its 2024 successor Found in Space.

Born in 1982 and raised in Augusta, Georgia, Dease began on alto saxophone as a teenager, later moving to tenor saxophone and earning all-state recognition for three straight years in high school. During his senior year he taught himself trombone and duplicated the all-state feat on the new instrument. Wycliffe Gordon invited him into Juilliard’s first jazz-program cohort, where Dease completed both bachelor’s and master’s degrees while studying additionally with Steve Turre, Vincent Gardner, and Joseph Alessi. Recognition arrived quickly: he was named a Yamaha Young Performing Artist in 2004, received Down Beat’s Best Jazz Instrumentalist honor in its June 2004 issue, and won the 2007 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award. Cicily Janus also featured him among the emerging talents profiled in her book The New Face of Jazz.

Throughout his college years Dease sustained an active performing schedule beyond campus. Illinois Jacquet recruited him for the veteran saxophonist’s big band, giving Dease his recording debut on the final Jacquet album, Swingin’ Live with Illinois Jacquet. Subsequent opportunities placed him in ensembles directed by Jimmy Heath, Wayne Shorter, Charles Tolliver, Christian McBride, and Roy Hargrove, as well as alongside Wycliffe Gordon, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Junior Mance, and the Billy Harper Sextet.

While co-leading a quintet with tenor saxophonist Chris Madsen, Dease recorded his first leader date, The Takeover. Subsequent releases under his own name, Dease Bones (which added six more trombonists and featured guest Wycliffe Gordon) and Clarity, showcased his skills on trombone, composition, and arrangement. He contributed bass trombone and tenor saxophone to Alicia Keys’ Grammy-winning track “Superwoman” and appeared on sessions with Paul Simon, the Curtis Brothers, Room Eleven, the Jason Hainsworth Jazz Orchestra, fellow Juilliard alum Sharel Cassity, and Thomas Barber’s Janus Bloc.

In 2009 Dease founded his D-Clef label to produce other artists and to document his own projects, beginning with 2013’s Coming Home. He also forged an ongoing association with Posi-Tone, starting with the 2014 big-band debut Relentless. Further small-group albums for the label included 2015’s Decisions, 2016’s Father Figure, 2017’s All These Hands, and 2019’s Bonafide, on which he headed an all-star trombone lineup featuring Conrad Herwig, Marshall Gilkes, and Gina Benalcazar.

Alongside his recording and performance commitments, Dease remains deeply engaged in education, having taught as a lecturer at Northeastern University, conducted private lessons, and led jazz workshops at colleges across the country. At Michigan State University he serves as Associate Professor of Jazz Trombone, working with bassist Rodney Whitaker, the institution’s Director of Jazz Studies. Continued Posi-Tone releases encompassed the Charlie Parker-inspired 2019 album Never More Here, 2021’s Give It All You Got, and 2022’s Best Thing for You. In 2023 he turned to the catalog of the little-known Michigan composer Gregg Hill for The Other Shoe: The Music of Gregg Hill, followed the next year by the companion set Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill.