Waco High Grad Mace Hibbard Releases New Jazz Album

By Sandi Horton

Waco High School graduate Mace Hibbard is enjoying tremendous international success as a jazz saxophonist, arranger, and composer. He won a Grammy award in 2010 and has produced several jazz albums. Mace Hibbard’s latest album, ‘Time Gone By’ spent over two months on the top 10 jazz charts when it was released in August 2011. Besides Hibbard, this new album features pianist and composer Louis Heriveaux, bassist Marc Miller, drummer Justin Varnes, and trumpeter Melvin Jones. This jazz ensemble has a great sense of always knowing how to interweave their unique instruments, complex rhythms, and individual sense of musicality to form a cohesive whole. Their song selection balances beautiful, poignant ballads with fast moving melodic inventions and counterpoint.

Isn’t Mace Hibbard the son of Dave Hibbard?

Jazz players and those who love to listen to jazz in Central Texas have probably heard of jazz trumpeter Dave Hibbard who lived in Waco for several decades. Dave literally breathed jazz producing a gorgeous tone on his flugelhorn. Dave was also the head of the commercial music department at McLennan Community College and married to music teacher Cindy Hibbard. Their son Mace grew up in Waco graduating from Waco High School where he was a standout alto sax player and also performed the leading male role in WHS’s production of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ at the Waco Hippodrome.

Mace’s next musical step took him to the University of Texas in Austin where he completed a Bachelors degree in Musical Performance and a Masters degree in Jazz Studies. Mace formed the group ‘Odd Man Out’ and released his first album on Viewpoint Records in 2000. Mace spent ten years in Austin performing, composing, and becoming one of the best alto sax players in the south.

Mace moved to Atlanta in 2003 teaching at Jacksonville State University as a professor of saxophone and jazz for seven years. He also performed and toured in several groups including the Derek Trucks Band and Soul Stew Revival. Hibbard also has served on the faculty of Georgia State University from 2005 to the present, as an instructor of jazz saxophone and improvisation. In 2007, Hibbard released his album, ‘When Last We Met’, featuring all original material and a lineup of Atlanta’s finest musicians. The album played worldwide and amassed incredible reviews from countless critics. In 2008, the ‘Mace Hibbard Quartet’ won the Future of Jazz Competition and performed at the Atlantic Jazz Festival. The next year 2009, Mace was invited to perform at the Savannah Music Festival. In 2010, Mace won a Grammy Award for his playing and horn arrangements on the album ‘Already Free’. He is also featured on the critically acclaimed live album, ‘Roadsongs’, released in 2010 by The Derek Trucks Band.

Stay tuned, there is more to come from the talented Hibbard family…

      Email    Print