Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Ellis Marsalis (1934–2020)
(Photo: Courtesy of Nu Jazz Agency)Pianist Ellis Marsalis, the head of a New Orleans family that significantly impacted how jazz is seen and heard across the world, died Wednesday. He was 85.
The elder Marsalis reportedly suffered COVID-19 symptoms and was awaiting test results.
“Ellis Marsalis was a legend. He was the prototype of what we mean when we talk about New Orleans jazz,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement. “The love and the prayers of all of our people go out to his family, and to all of those whose lives he touched. He was a teacher, a father, and an icon—and words aren’t sufficient to describe the art, the joy and the wonder he showed the world. This loss cuts us deeply. May we wrap his family in our love and our gratitude, and may we honor his memory by coming together in spirit—even as the outbreak keeps us apart, for a time.”
About a year ago, Marsalis appeared with his sons—Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis—at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Its 2020 edition likely will be rescheduled.
The pianist, also a lauded educator in New Orleans, was the namesake of a piano competition, as well as an NEA Jazz Master. Fittingly, he was enshrined along with his family in 2011.
In addition to playing on several of his sons’ albums, he also recorded many discs as a leader himself, including Ellis Marsalis Trio (Blue Note, 1991), Whistle Stop (Columbia, 1994) and On The First Occasion (Elm, 2013). DB
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
“With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.
Jan 2, 2025 10:50 AM
On Musho (Intakt), her recent duo album with pianist Alexander Hawkins, singer Sofia Jernberg interprets traditional…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
