The latest news about Delfeayo Marsalis and the Marsalis Family
Listen Up: Delfeayo Marsalis, Barbara Cook, Roomful of Blues
Delfeayo Marsalis,Sweet Thunder
* ** * PAYING HOMAGE TO THE MASTERS
In 1957, Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorncreated a timeless classic in Such Sweet Thunder, a 12-part suite based the themes and characters of William Shakespeare. Trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis does a fresh take on the material — originally played by a 15-member big band — with a star-studded octet that includes brothers Branford and Jason Marsalis, pianist Mulgrew Miller, saxophonists Victor Goines and Mark Gross, trumpeter Tiger Okoshi, bassist Charnett Moffett and drummer Winard Harper. Marsalis expands on Ellington’s original songs (inspirations) — i.e. Sonnet to Hank Cinq(Henry V), Madness in Great Ones(Hamlet), Star-Crossed Lovers(Romeo and Juliet)— primarily through exquisite solos by his band mates. The album serves as a companion to his just-started 36-city tour, Sweet Thunder: Duke & Shak, an ambitious theatrical jazz production that includes readings from Shakespeareby actor Kenneth Brown Jr. (Treme). It’s been a big month for Marsalis, who a week received the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award along with his father, Ellis, and brothers Branford, Wynton and Jason. — Steve Jones
Download: The above mention titles; Lady Mac(MacBeth), Sonnet for Sister Kate (Taming of the Shrew), Sonnet in Search of A Moor (Othello)
YouTube du Jour: Delfeayo Marsalis
Offbeat – December 29, 2010 In our brand new January 2011 issue, John Swenson interviews trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis for our Backtalk interview about his upcoming release, Sweet Thunder. The album is a reworking of a Duke Ellington suite of the same name, for which Ellington wrote 12 compositions based on plays and sonnets of Shakespeare. Here’s Marsalis performing his new album’s closing track, “Circle of Fourths”, about three years ago.
2011 NEA Jazz Masters: The Marsalis Family
“It is with great pride and humility that I accept this award on behalf of the Marsalis family. The NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship Award has special meaning to me as I was a member of the jazz panel at the inception of this award and had the opportunity to cast subsequent votes for many of the surviving jazz giants during my tenure. At that time I had no idea that we would be so honored by the NEA and placed in the company of such an esteemed group of individuals. Read the rest of this entry
Albert Gallatin Lecture Featuring Delfeayo Marsalis - “New Orleans Jazz: Old School To Modern”
2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award recipient Delfeayo Marsalis will deliver the Winter 2010 Gallatin Lecture, “New Orleans Jazz: Old School to Modern,” on Monday, December 6th at 6:00 PM at the Jerry Labowitz Theatre (1 Washington Pl.) Marsalis will provide a vibrant demonstration of the history of New Orleans /jass/ music and its transformations through the 20th century. With the help of live musicians, Marsalis’s lecture will be an informational performance (“informance”) that engages as much with New Orleans’s vital cultural legacy as it does with the technicalities of changing musical styles. Read the rest of this entry
