“When he plays, you feel the spirit of the sanctified church; you are inspired by the complexity of the human mind, and you want to dance.” – Jason Marsalis

Marcus Roberts

A native of Jacksonville raised in the musical traditions of the Baptist Church, Marcus Roberts lost his sight at age 5. His mother, also blind and a gospel singer, first taught him to play piano at age 8, and he was soon playing weekly in church. More formal training followed at age 12, giving him a solid classical foundation.  However, hearing Ellington, Benny Goodman and Mary Lou Williams on the radio turned him on to jazz, while hearing gospel music through his church infused his music with plenty of soul. "My mom used to play every morning—5:30 in the morning—this Aretha Franklin record, ‘Amazing Grace’ with James Cleveland,” he recalls, “and even as a kid, it just gets into your spirit and you take it from there." A classical music major at Florida State University, Roberts studied with the highly regarded concert artist, Leonidas Lipovetsky, devouring Braille scores from the Library of Congress.

Marcus Roberts

Still at FSU, Roberts won the young artist's competition at the 1982 National Association of Jazz Educators annual conference, then the following year won the Great American Piano Competition. At 21, he began a six-year stint touring and recording with Wynton Marsalis, during which time he won the Monk Competition and signed his first major recording contract with BMG. After a series of releases for BMG, he signed on to Columbia in 1994, initiating a wide-ranging repertoire of solo piano, duets, and trio arrangements of jazz standards as well as original works for trio, large ensembles and symphony orchestra. He earned a Grammy nomination for his 1996 recording of George Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue” (Portraits in Blue) with symphony orchestra and jazz band.

Roberts formed his famed trio in the mid-90s, with a 17-year-old Jason Marsalis on drums and soon the addition of bassist Roland Guerin. Now together for about 14 years, the trio is a sterling example of true collaboration among three musicians. "I've been in many bands and most of the time it feels like something is missing...like something else is needed to make the band sound whole,” says Roberts. “When I play with Roland and Jason, the music sounds complete. I don't imagine that anything else should have happened on the bandstand other than what did." The new release, New Orleans Meets Harlem, Volume One, is the first in a series planned for Robert’s J-Master label in the near future; From Rags to Rhythm is due out in the fall. The new release salutes the diverse giants who have shaped Roberts’ music—Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, all given a fresh new sound from Roberts and his trio.

And throughout his career, Marcus Roberts’ repertoire has drawn on the history of jazz, from Fats Waller to Ellington to Monk to Coltrane and beyond. Known for reviving classical works, Roberts notes that his ultimate goal is “to come up with something different, something new that didn’t exist before... Every time I sit down to the piano, I draw spontaneously from as much of the history of great music as I have at my fingertips,” he says. “That's why I never stop studying great music. It just gives me more to draw on in my improvisations."

Beyond his reconsiderations of classic jazz compositions, Marcus Roberts has himself contributed a large body of original work to the genre, including numerous suites such as "Romance, Swing, and the Blues", "Deep in the Shed", "Time and Circumstance", "In Honor of Duke", "From Rags to Rhythm", and "The Sound of the Band.” He has received various commissioning awards, from Jazz at Lincoln Center, Chamber Music America, ASCAP, and the North Carolina Association of Jazz Educators.

Marcus Roberts

Marcus Roberts will contribute such information to the judging of the 2009 Jazz Piano Scholarship Competition on the afternoon of May 17th, joining local judges Mary Louise Knutson and Tanner Taylor in evaluating the performances of three high school seniors—Chris Misa (Perpich Center for Arts Education), Cody Peterson (Stillwater High School) and Joe Strachan (Northfield High School), who will each receive a $500 scholarship, with the winner receiving an additional $500 award. The finals are free and open to the public at the Dakota Jazz Club.  And a few hours later, ticket holders will enjoy the solo piano of one of modern jazz’s true masters of the instrument, as performer, composer, teacher, and historian.

Marcus Roberts performs two solo sets, 7 and 9:30 pm on May 17th at the Dakota, 1010 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. Reservations highly recommended; www.dakotacooks.com 

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