Listening to Augusta native Michael Dease unpack, unwrap and unroll a solo, it’s easy to forget that the trombone — an instrument too often associated with marching bands and cartoon soundtracks — is his instrument of choice. Deftly grabbing onto a tune’s melody before expanding and expounding upon it, taking in unexpected directions before making the turn and bringing it back home, his sound is defined by an inescapable warmth, an undefinable instinctiveness and a musical approach that obliterates expectations of how his instrument operates within an arrangement.
Those imaginative improvisations, deft arrangements and remarkably nimble approaches to trombone have earned him the respect of the international jazz community. He has been named Trombonist of the Year in the Downbeat magazine Critic’s Poll three years running and secured high-profile gigs with the likes of Alicia Keyes, Paul Simon, the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as well as leading his own combos and recording 20 albums as a band leader. He is also a respected member of Michigan State University’s Jazz Studies faculty.
But for Dease, all roads lead back to the place he first heard a jazz record, first showed a proclivity for the musical form, found his first teachers and mentors, and first came to believe that a musical life might be possible. For Michael Dease, it all began in Augusta and, ironically, with his instrument of choice in the 5th grade.
“The sax,” he says. “That came first. That’s what got me interested in jazz. That’s what got me into Davidson Fine Arts. That was me until my senior year. I was the jazz sax guy.”
He said that while saxophone is often regarded as a standard component in many jazz ensembles and arrangements, finding that sweet spot for trombone can be more difficult. Still, he admits that hearing Curtis Fuller playing on John Coltrane’s Blue Train as well as the rapid-fire approach to the instrument of his early teacher, mentor and fellow Augusta-area native Wycliffe Gordon (himself a multiple Downbeat Trombonist of the Year), inspired him to step outside his woodwind comfort zone and try something new.
“Hearing that solo, hearing those tones, well, it just blew my mind,” he says. “I couldn’t believe it could be so warm and nimble.” Gordon’s influence extended far beyond the trombone, Dease asserts. In many ways, he became the lead Dease would riff off in terms of becoming a professional musician.
“When that week was over, I had offers for 15 other gigs and a record deal. Opportunity knocked and I was ready.”
– Michael Dease
“It’s hard to put into words,” he says. “He was so inspiring — just his personality. His love of music just radiates. He just carries it with him all the time. For me, it really created that initial pull toward music. It also helped me talk to my parents about it — if he could make a life in music then maybe so could I.”
After graduating from Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School, Dease was accepted, and earned both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree, as one of the very first jazz students at The Juilliard School in New York City. It was there that he began to play professionally on a small scale at first and then in progressively higher profile settings. He said that Juilliard taught him how to play but being in New York taught him how to be a performer.
“It’s something I try to communicate to my students,” he says. “You have to be ready when your opportunity comes and that means hard work. Hard work increases your odds for success. Right now, we live in a world of instant gratification, but for the jazz musician, that just is not realistic. Putting the work in is. Being ready when opportunity knocks.”
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