Jazz in the family

Press, 18 June 1986, Page 20

Jazz in the family

Jazz is in the Marsalis family blood. There is Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter ... and Branford Marsalis, saxophonist with Sting ... and Ellis Marsalis, pianist, leading his own quartet, father of an extraordinary musical family. The Ellis Marsalis Quartet is coming to Christchurch to play in the Town Hall Auditorium on June 24. From the home of jazz, New Orleans, Ellis Marsalis has a long history of playing, teaching and composing. He is now teaching at the New Orleans Centre for the Creative Arts, and has had a profound influence on many talented young players. His own talent for

music was recognised at an early age when he began piano at 13, clarinet at 16, piano again in his mid-twenties, and cello at 29. He graduated from Dillard University with a bachelors degree in music education, and later played cello in the symphony orchestra at Southwest Louisiana University. But it was as a jazz pianist that he established himself, playing in a Marine Corps Quintet at 22, and later forming his own group in New Orleans. In 1962 he played with Nat and Cannonball Adderley. Sometime after he began to teach, he was invited to join Al Hlrt’s

band, and played with them for three and a half years, including concerts at the White House, Carnegie Hall, and the Boston Symphony Hall. Ellis Marsalis and his quartet will be briefly in Christchurch. The quartet is Marsalis on piano, Reginald Veal on bass, Noel Kendrick on drums, and Victor Goines on tenor sax. Noel Kendrick and Reginald Veal are former students of the New Orleans Centre for the Creative Arts and Ellis Marsalis. Victor Goines studied privately with Ellis Marsalis before his teacher invited him to join the quartet.