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a30 feature
Friday 3 april 2020
Son: Jazz great Ellis Marsalis Jr. dead, 85; COVID involved

By J. McCONNAUGHEY and Terence Blanchard,
and REBECCA SANTANA saxophonists Donald Harri-
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Ellis son and Victor Goines, and
Marsalis Jr., the jazz pianist, bassist Reginald Veal.
teacher and patriarch of a Marsalis was born in New
New Orleans musical clan, Orleans, son of the opera-
died late Wednesday from tor of a hotel where he met
pneumonia brought on by touring black musicians
the new coronavirus, leav- who couldn't stay at the
ing six sons and a deep segregated downtown ho-
legacy. He was 85. tels where they performed.
“My dad was a giant of a He played saxophone in
musician and teacher, but high school; he also played
an even greater father. He piano by the time he went
poured everything he had to Dillard University.
into making us the best of Although New Orleans was
what we could be,” Bran- steeped in traditional jazz,
ford said. and rock 'n' roll was the
Four of the jazz patriarch's new sound in the 1950s,
Marsalis preferred bebop
and modern jazz.
Spitzer described Marsalis
This April 28, 2019, file photo, shows Ellis Marsalis during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival as a “modernist in a town
in New Orleans. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced Wednesday, April 1, 2020, that of traditionalists.”
Marsalis has died. He was 85. "His great love was jazz a la
(AP Photo/Sophia Germer, File) bebop — he was a lover of
six sons are musicians: Wyn- be with his father, who was teacher, a father, and an Thelonious Monk and the
ton, a Pulitzer- and Gram- hospitalized Saturday in icon — and words aren’t idea that bebop was a mu-
my-winning trumpeter, is Louisiana, which has been sufficient to describe the sic of freedom. But when
America's most prominent hit hard by the outbreak. art, the joy and the wonder he had to feed his family,
jazz spokesman as artis- Others in the family spent he showed the world." he played R&B and soul
tic director of jazz at New time with him, too. Because Marsalis opted and rock ‘n’ roll on Bour-
York's Lincoln Center. Bran- “He went out the way he to stay in New Orleans bon Street," Spitzer said.
ford, a saxophonist, has lived: embracing reality,” for most of his career, his The musician's college
won three Grammies, led Wynton tweeted, along- reputation was limited quartet included drummer
The Tonight Show band side pictures of his father. until his sons became fa- Ed Blackwell, clarinetist Al-
and toured with Sting. Delf- Branford's statement in- mous — Wynton has won vin Batiste and saxophonist
eayo, a trombonist, is a cluded a text he said he nine Grammies and been Harold Battiste.
prominent recording pro- got from Harvard Law Pro- nominated 33 times — and Ornette Coleman was in
ducer and performer. And fessor David Wilkins: “We brought him the spotlight, town at the time. In 1956,
Jason, a percussionist, has can all marvel at the sheer along with new recording when Coleman headed
made a name for himself audacity of a man who contracts and headliner to California, Marsalis and
with his own band and as believed he could teach performances on television the others went along, but
an accompanist. Ellis III, his black boys to be excel- and tour. after a few months Marsa-
who decided music wasn't lent in a world that denied "He was like the coach of lis returned home. He told
his gig, is a photographer- that very possibility, and jazz. He put on the sweat- the New Orleans Times-
poet in Baltimore. Their then watch them go on to shirt, blew the whistle and Picayune years later, when
brother Mboya has autism. redefine what excellence made these guys work," he and Coleman were old
Marsalis' wife, Dolores, died means for all time.” said Nick Spitzer, host of men, that he never figured
in 2017. In a statement, Mayor public radio’s American out what a pianist could
“Pneumonia was the actu- LaToya Cantrell said of Routes and a Tulane Uni- do behind the free form of
al thing that caused his de- the man who continued versity anthropology pro- Coleman's jazz.
mise. But it was pneumonia to perform regularly until fessor. Back in New Orleans, Mar-
brought on by COVID-19,” December: “Ellis Marsa- The Marsalis "family band" salis joined the Marine
Ellis Marsalis III said in an lis was a legend. He was seldom played together Corps and was assigned
Associated Press phone in- the prototype of what we when the boys were young- to accompany soloists on
terview. He said he drove mean when we talk about er but went on tour in 2003 the service's weekly TV pro-
Sunday from Baltimore to New Orleans jazz. He was a in a spinoff of a family cel- grams on CBS in New York.
ebration, which became a There, he said, he learned
PBS special when the elder to handle all kinds of mu-
Marsalis retired from teach- sic styles. Returning home,
ing at the University of New he worked at the Playboy
Orleans. Club and ventured into
Harry Connick Jr., one of running his own club, which
his students at the New Or- went bust. In 1967 trumpet-
leans Center for the Cre- er Al Hirt hired him. When
ative Arts, was a guest. not on Bourbon Street, Hirt's
He's one of many now-fa- band appeared on nation-
mous jazz musicians who al TV — headline shows on
passed through Marsalis' The Tonight Show and The
classrooms. Others include Ed Sullivan Show, among
trumpeters Nicholas Payton others.q