Hemphill, Julius

Subito Music is proud to be the publisher of the complete musical catalog of the celebrated composer and instrumentalist Julius Arthur Hemphill (1938-1995). A founding member of the Black Artist Group (BAG) of St. Louis, Mo., he worked extensively in inter-disciplinary contexts, constantly expanding his creative reach. He gained international recognition performing his ground- breaking compositions for Saxophone Quartet and Sextet with the World Saxophone Quartet and the Julius Hemphill Saxophone Sextet. His first ensemble recording, “Dogon A.D.” Is considered one of the greatest recordings of its decade.

The Subito Music catalog includes the full range of Hemphill’s compositional endeavors, from solo pieces to small jazz group contexts, to the extensive saxophone choir music, to jazz big band works, chamber music works, and pieces for theatre and dance, and for classical orchestra. With the establishment in 2018 of the Julius Hemphill Archive at New York University, the full picture of Hemphill’s compositional range is in focus. The composer and saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, one of Hemphill’s oldest collaborators and the chief researcher of the Julius Hemphill Archive, has edited collections and individual works of Hemphill’s music.

In Hemphill’s music, you enter fully into the rich history of African-American musical creativity. From these roots his music looks forward with an instantly recognizable individual, highly inventive voice. Hemphill performed his music with players of jazz and classical backgrounds, and welcomed diverse instrumentations, looking to highlight the individual voices of the performers. Each of these folios comes with introductory notes by Ehrlich which speak to performance practices used by Hemphill, and to ways in which these works can be used and adapted for diverse contexts.

“There is no one Julius Hemphill. He did as much as any artist I know to create new spaces in the world with his artistic vision, creativity, and collective engagement. There are many doors to enter into his work, and in the end, they are all one. These compositions are pathways through his multi-faceted creative life. There is much to celebrate, and to share”. Marty Ehrlich (2021)

For further information, please visit the Julius Hemphill Archive website
https://wp.nyu.edu/library-hemphill_papers/.

Ehrlich’s full annotated document of the Hemphill Archive is available at
https://bit.ly/Hemphill-Ehrlich