“When you play with Elvin, you know it will be swinging!” –Delfeayo Marsalis

Delfeayo Marsalis

Elvin Jones knew the joys and challenges of growing up surrounded by musicians. The youngest of ten, the great drummer couldn’t help but absorb the language of jazz, particularly from older brothers Hank and Thad. Perhaps it was this background that fueled a connection with young Delfeayo Marsalis in the early 1990s. Son of Ellis Marsalis and sandwiched between older brothers Wynton and Branford, and younger brother Jason, Delfeayo, too, was infused with a love of music seemingly from birth, and his sense of swing and tradition was a perfect fit to the music of the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. Over a decade, Marsalis largely stayed in the background, playing sideman to Jones and others, and concentrating on an impressive career as a record producer. Jones passed away in 2004, but not before taking the sideman chair in Marsalis’ quintet to record Minions Dominion (Troubadour Jass), finally released this fall in tribute to Jones. And with a new band and more time to concentrate on his performance career, Delfeayo Marsalis will launch a new tour in honor of the new release and his mentor, starting with a five-day run at the Blue Note in New York, January 2-7. His Midwest tour will take him to Chicago's HotHouse on January 11th.

Delfeayo and his brothers grew up in New Orleans. Initially he “dabbled with drums a little and it wasn’t my thing, and then the bass, but it hurt my fingers.” When he settled on the trombone at age 13, it was a perfect fit. “The trombone was meant for me,” says Delfeayo, “it fit my personality. The job of the trombone is to make sure everyone gets along, that the trumpet and sax get along. The trumpet is the lead in a New Orleans band, and the sax’s job is to make the trumpet sound good; and the trombone makes sure both of them sound good!” After attending high school at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, Marsalis went on to the Berklee College of Music to study performance and production. He received additional classical training through the Eastern Music Festival and Tanglewood Institute; and he recently earned an MA degree in jazz performance from the University of Louisville.

In addition to the strong influences of brothers Wynton and Branford, Delfeayo cites J.J. Johnson in particular among trombonists (“his clarity of attack”), but also Al Grey, Tyree Glynn, Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey and Curtis Fuller. Fuller’s flexibility inspired Delfeayo, who also notes that Fuller “was responsible for providing the trombone sound in modern context. J.J. led his own groups, so he dictated what he would play, while Curtis would walk into a session and get the music down.”

Marsalis’ early touring experiences included stints with Ray Charles, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Max Roach, and Abdullah Ibrahim, as well as Elvin Jones' Jazz Machine. More recently he has appeared with Branford and on Monty Alexander’s Concrete Jungle. Yet he only released two recordings as leader prior to Minion’s Dominion, including Pontius Pilate’s Decision in 1992 (RCA) and Musashi (King Records) in 1997. Unlike many musicians who turn to production later in their careers, often to gain more control over their music, Delfeayo’s first priority for many years was producing music for others, and he was already heading projects at 17. Producing over 100 releases since the 1980s (including projects for Wynton and Branford, and for Harry Connick, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Roberts, Eric Reed and Nicholas Payton), he’s garnered several Grammy awards and nominations.

Has his experience as a producer enhanced his performance? Definitely, says Delfeayo. “The producer has to oversee all of what’s going on, being in tune with audience, the band and the music. Maybe we have to shift gears, we’ll start with one idea and change it up a bit.” But his experience as a performer also impacts his skills as a producer. “When I hear the musicians, with my background in jazz—I’m thinking about what they are doing individually and collectively, how we can edit together to get best pieces,” says Marsalis. “As a player that helps with the energy level. The two [roles] feed off of each other. I did it in reverse order; most start as players and come back as a producer later, but I was fortunate to have the production skills early on.”

Delfeayo Marsalis is also an accomplished composer and educator. Among music scores, his works have included the backdrop for the ABC mini-series, Moon Over Miami, the documentaries Streetcar Mysteries and 112th & Central, an off-Broadway production, Girl Gone, and the New Orleans Ballet presentations of Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire and Glass Menagerie. And the majority of tracks on Minion’s Dominion are original compositions. As a committed jazz educator, he has served as Director of the Foundation for Artistic and Musical Excellence summer program in Lawrenceville, NJ, and founded the Uptown Music Theatre, created specifically to provide 8th-12th grade youth with musical theatre training.

Passing on the jazz tradition is a personal mission for Delfeayo, who seeks to emulate mentor Elvin Jones who “always tried to find [young] musicians who were serious and had that understanding [of the lineage of jazz], and wanted to help them develop.” In seeking a new band for his upcoming tour, Marsalis noted that “The important thing was to find folks who are in tune with the elements of the music that I feel are important—first swing, and second to have and understanding of the complete lineage of the music.” Thus his new band features a group of young musicians whom he feels are already making their mark: “Anthony Wonsey [piano] played with Nicholas Payton for a number of years and I’ve watched him since he was a student at Berklee. He’s really serious and continually growing—that’s always important… Mark Shim’s on tenor sax—he has recorded his own music for Blue Note. He’s an interesting guy because he prefers the avant-garde and I like to have that element as a balance. So my challenge to him is to fit that sound into the structure of my concept of the music… David Pulphus [bass] is from St. Louis and lived in New Orleans for 15 years. He’s one of those guys who recently has come into his own as far as how he addresses the bass sound and tone. He played with Elvin--I played with Elvin with David and Anthony… Jeff Fejardo [drums] I met recently at Berklee—he’s still a student. He’ll be one of the next young guns, has great sensibility and lights the fire—he understands the lineage of the music.”

Minion’s Dominion was recorded in 2002 with Elvin Jones on all tracks; all but one track features pianist Mulgrew Miller (Sergio Salvatore sits in for one tune); either Branford Marsalis or Donald Harrison play saxophones, with Edward Livingston, Robert Hurst or Eric Reavis on bass. Notes Delfeayo, “It was great [to play with Elvin] because everyone else in my band was heavily influenced by his playing. In a situation like that, it forces you to step up to the table in a certain kind of way. The great part of the human spirit is when you are in the midst of something that has potential for greatness; you have to rise to the occasion. And we all understood it would be one of [Elvin’s] last recordings.” And it proved to be the last recording by Jones with horns.

The new recording introduces new compositions (along with Ellington’s “Just Squeeze Me” and the more obscure John Elliott tune, “Weaver of Dreams”), but maintains Delfeayo’s respect for the jazz tradition and the basic concept of swing. “We were all excited –when you play with Elvin you know it will be swinging--- no question!” Additionally, Delfeayo cites the contributions of brother Branford to the mix: “I really liked using Branford because he took albums from the European tradition and brought in the American aesthetic—particularly using the swing bass.” The compositions selected “were great for Elvin because his playing had so much variety, and we wanted to play music with variety, with swing and that groove element.”

The result is already garnering accolades as one of the top recordings of 2006. “Altogether an outstanding CD with many layers of interest and superb performances,” notes Anthony Troon in Jazz Review. “This album’s a really great representation of his musicality and his vision… You can hear the rapport between Elvin and Delfeayo… I’m hoping it won’t be another ten years until he puts out another album,” wrote Nate Chinen (Weekend America).

With a new quintet, Delfeayo Marsalis’ “Minion’s Dominion” tour will take audiences, by the ears, on a sonic journey marked by the high level of musicianship and creativity that aptly describes each member of the ensemble, and that pays eloquent tribute to a legendary musician whom many regarded as the ultimate mentor, the late Elvin Jones. The quintet will launch the 2007 tour at the Blue Note in New York (January 2-7), with David Liebman splitting sax duties with Mark Shim; Jason Marsalis on drums and Gerald Cannon on bass will join Anthony Wonsey in the rhythm section for the New York date. With his new quintet in full, Delfeayo then heads to the Midwest for gigs at the Dakota in Minneapolis (January 9-10), at the Hot House in Chicago (January 11), at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit (January 12), and at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis (January 13).

See club websites for ticket information and reservations: The Blue Note ( www.bluenotejazz.com), the Dakota ( www.dakotacooks.com), The HotHouse ( www.hothouse.net), Jazz Club at the Max ( www.detroitsymphony.com), and the Jazz Kitchen (www.thejazzkitchen.com). Keep up with Delfeayo Marsalis and the Minion’s Dominion tour at www.delfeayomarsalis.com. For the full Jazz Police interview with Delfeayo Marsalis, click here.