Delfeayo Marsalis

“When you play with Elvin, you know it will be swinging!” –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, released in fall 2006 as a tribute to Jones. And with a new band and more time to concentrate on his performance career, Delfeayo Marsalis spent the first part of 2007 touring in honor of the new release and his mentor. Having started that tour at the Blue Note in Manhattan, Delfeayo and the band have come full circle, returning to the Blue Note to usher in the new year, January 1-6. Filling Jones’ spot behind the trapset will be Jason Marsalis.

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.”

Delfeayo Marsalis©Andrea Canter

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 touring band has featured a group of young and rising star musicians, including Anthony Wonsey on piano, Mark Shim on tenor sax, bassist David Pulphus, and Berklee student Jeff Fejardo on drums. For the Blue Note gig, however, Delfeayo’s younger brother Jason will handle percussion duties.

Jason Marsalis©Andrea Canter

Minion’s Dominion garnered a wide array of accolades as one of the top recordings of 2006. “Altogether an outstanding CD with many layers of interest and superb performances,” noted 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).

Delfeayo Marsalis’ Blue Note gigs 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.

Ticket information and reservations at www.bluenotejazz.com. Keep up with Delfeayo Marsalis at www.delfeayomarsalis.com. For the Jazz Police interview with Delfeayo Marsalis, click here.