The Marsalis Family News

An Early Father's Day for Ellis Marsalis

Special to the Washington Post by Mike Joyce

June 17, 2009

    It wasn’t easy, but New Orleans jazz pianist and patriarch Ellis Marsalis managed to cram a few words in edgewise as the annual Duke Ellington Jazz Festival drew to an exuberant close at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Monday night. Read more »

Submitted by Bobby on June 17th, 2009 — 12:44pm

The Marsalis Family: An Update

Date: 07.16.2007
Publication: Marsalis Music

 

Since the release of The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration in 2003 members of the Marsalis Family have been hard at work pursuing divergent but equally intriguing musical endeavors. In 2005 Ellis Marsalis, the patriarch of the family released An Evening with the Ellis Marsalis Quartet on ELM Records, a label he is developing with his wife, Dolores, and son Jason.

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Submitted by Josh on July 15th, 2007 — 11:00pm

The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration - - What The Critics Say

Date: 08.05.2003
Publication: Marsalis Music

“For the past 20 years, the name Marsalis has been synonymous with jazz.”
Steve Jones, USA Today

“Form meets tradition, creativity trumps familiarity and blood runs thicker than water on this concert commemorating the ‘debut’ of the multitalented Marsalis family band.”
Fred Bouchard, Down Beat

“Ellis Marsalis – pianist, jazz educator, sire of champions…”
Doug Ramsey, JazzTimes
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Submitted by Josh on August 4th, 2003 — 11:00pm

Working Together, Taking Different Roads

Date: 03.05.2003
Publication: New York Times
Author: Ben Ratliff

 

It’s true: the Marsalises have been overexposed to the ends of the earth. One might have looked at the enormous profile on Wynton Marsalis in the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly, noticed the recent PBS special about the family, then seen a full-family concert coming up and rightly wondered why nobody else in jazz was apparently worth paying attention to.
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Submitted by Josh on March 5th, 2003 — 12:00am

Jazz Spotlight : Marsalis Times Five

By Don Heckman
Los Angeles Times
02.16.2003

In “The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration” (*** 1/2, Marsalis Music), the only nonmember of the family in the ensemble is bassist Roland Guerin. Beyond that, it’s all Marsalis: patriarch Ellis on piano, saxophonist Branford, trumpeter Wynton, trombonist Delfeayo and drummer Jason.

It took a tribute concert marking Ellis Marsalis’ retirement from his teaching duties at the University of New Orleans to bring father and four sons together on the same stage, in the same band, for the very first time.
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Submitted by Ben on February 16th, 2003 — 12:00am