Biography

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“Just as his drumming is steeped in both modern and New Orleans rhythmic styles, his vibes playing draws on the rich tradition of the instrument … with commendably ardent swing.”
– George Kanzler, Jazz Times

Fresh from touring with acclaimed banjoist Bela Fleck and pianist Marcus Roberts, Jason Marsalis returns to his role as band leader and vibraphonist extraordinaire with the release of his latest album, In A World of Mallets, on February 19 via Basin Street Records. His third release on the New Orleans-based label follows the drum-centric releases Year of the Drummer (1998) and Music in Motion (2000). Recorded in his home town of New Orleans and self-produced, In A World of Mallets is the first official release with his current band, the Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet. For a sample of Jason’s new tunes, listen to “Blues Can Be Abstract, Too” (feel free to post and share).

Of Marsalis’ recent return to bandleader and vibraphonist the New York Times have said, “The youngest son of the Marsalis family, the drummer Jason Marsalis makes infrequent…self-produced records that are always worth hearing…Jazz often wants to be acceptably cool. Here there’s a sense of an excellent musician trying out something risky without embarrassment.”

With each passing year Jason Marsalis continues to grow and develop as both a composer and performer. With a fire in his heart and a passion for the music, his will to swing has never been more resolute. The maturity of this young lion and the command he possesses over his instrument is clearly evident on In A World of Mallets. Marsalis steps behind marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells, vibraphone, and xylophone with a healthy mix of original compositions, work by his up-and-coming band-members, and dedications to former jazz greats. With “Blues Can Be Abstract, Too” Marsalis questions those who believe blues must be primitive in nature; he explores all genres of music with “Ballet Class,” and demonstrates his true virtuosity with “Whistle for Willie.” Compositions by each of his quartet-members, “Ill Bill,” “Louisiana Gold,” and “Big Earl’s Last Ride,” round out the center of the album with creative variation. Bobby Hutcherson’s “My Joy” shows Marsalis’ respect for the progenitors of jazz-vibraphone. “The Nice Mailman’s Happy Song to Ann” traverses a wide variety of moods and feelings with varying iterations of a single theme.

From a tender young age it was clear that Jason Marsalis had what it took to be great. Jason is the son of pianist and music educator Ellis Marsalis and the youngest sibling of musicians Wynton, Branford and Delfeayo. Together, the four brothers and Ellis comprise New Orleans’ venerable first family of jazz; they are collectively recipients of the NEA Jazz Masters Award. Jason is well known for his prodigal drumming. Working with the Ellis Marsalis trio as well as the Marcus Roberts trio, he has fine tuned his playing in two of the most demanding settings in modern jazz. Since 2000, Jason has been a mainstay on the New Orleans scene as a bandleader from the vibraphone chair. His current group, The Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet, is comprised of Austin Johnson on piano, Will Goble on Bass, and Dave Potter on drums. His groups have performed at Snug Harbor, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, The Jazz Playhouse, and The Satchmo Summerfest. Jason has also appeared at many of the foremost jazz venues throughout the US and Canada, and has toured Europe on the summer festival scene. His playing is unique; drawing from a wide range of influences, Jason performs original music as well as many hidden gems from jazz literature and beyond.


Track Listing
1. Discipline Discovers A World of Mallets
2. Blues Can Be Abstract, Too
3. Ballet Class
4. Characters
5. Blues for the 29%ers
6. My Joy
7. Ill Bill
8. Louisiana Gold
9. Big Earl's Last Ride
10. The Nice Mailman's Happy Song to Ann
11. Nenhum Talvez (Not Even Maybe)
12. Closing Credits
13. Whistle for Willie
14. Discipline Gets Lost In A World of Mallets

Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet
Jason Marsalis - Marimba, Glockenspiel, Tubular Bells, Vibraphone, and Xylophone
Austin Johnson - Piano
Will Goble - Bass
Dave Potter - Drums

Credits
Produced By Jason Marsalis
Executive Producer: Mark Samuels

Vibes Quartet was recorded by Ben Lorio at the Music Shed on Jan. 9, 2012. Discipline Ensemble was recorded by Steve Reynolds at UNO Recording Studios on Feb. 11-12, 2012. Editing and mixing: Music Shed in New Orleans, LA between February and May. Mastering: Mark Wilder at Battery Studios in New York, NY
Photos: Jeff Strout
Graphic Design: Diana Thornton, www.crescentmusic.com

Jason Marsalis plays Majestic Vibraphone from Jupiter Instruments. Dave Potter endorses Vic Firth sticks and Mapex drums.

This album is dedicated to the memory of Abram Wilson, a great friend and trumpeter raised in New Orleans, LA who was gone too soon.

Thanks to my wife Kaya and daughters Marley, McKenzie, and Evangeline for their love and support. Thanks goes out to my parents Ellis and Dolores Marsalis and brothers, Branford, Wynton, Ellis III, Delfeayo, and Mboya.

"Blues Can Be Abstract, Too" is dedicated to all the musicians and music students who believe that blues is a primitive old form in which no modern music can be explored. "Ballet Class" is dedicated to ALL genres of music. "Whistle for Willie" was inspired by a kids book written by Ezra Jack Keats that my parents bought me years ago. "Discipline Gets Lost in a World of Mallets" is dedicated to the host of the "Records with the Fat Man" show on WWOZ radio in New Orleans who years ago played a record that had a jazz solo on tubular bells.

Thanks to Charles Taylor of the music department at the University of New Orleans for letting me use the percussion instruments and mallets for the "Discipline" sessions. Thanks also goes to Brian Seeger and Missy Bowen for helping me coordinate those sessions. Thanks to Ben Lorio and Jared Marcell at the Music Shed for the recording, editing, and mixing hours and to Steve Reynolds for recording the "Discipline" sessions.

Thanks goes in order to vibraphonists past and present from Lionel Hampton, Red Norvo, Milt Jackson, Victor Feldman, Bobby Hutcherson, Gary Burton, Mike Mineiri, Dave Samuels, Jay Hoggard, Steve Nelson, Stefon Harris, Warren Wolf, Norbert Lucarain (your records are incredible!), James Westfall, Roman Skakun, Tim Collins, and to the vibraphonists who I've forgotten and the ones who are up and coming.

A debt of gratitude is owed to the original members of the percussion ensemble M'Boom: Max Roach, Joe Chambers, Warren Smith, Roy Brooks, Freddie Waits, Omar Clay, Fred King, Ray Mantilla, and Kenyatte Abdur-Rahman. With M'Boom, the "Discipline" mallet tracks (or drums for that matter) would not be possible.

Finally, I have to thank pianist Marcus Roberts and bassist Rodney Jordan. In 2003, Marcus and I did a residency at Florida State University and met Rodney, whose student combo included Will Goble and David Potter. It was on that day Marcus and I met future members of our respective bands.

Tour Dates

Jason Marsalis Bio
From a tender young age it was clear that Jason Marsalis had what it took to be great. Jason is the son of pianist and music educator Ellis Marsalis and his wife Dolores, and the youngest sibling of Wynton, Branford and Delfeayo. Together, the four brothers and their patriarch Ellis, comprise New Orleans venerable first family of jazz.

Ellis and Dolores began to cultivate Jason’s interest in music at age three, with the purchase of a toy set of drums. Jason is fond of telling the story of a game he and his parents would play with the drums. “When I was three, my parents bought me a toy drum set and the used to introduce me to an
imaginary audience. They would say, ‘Ladies and gentleman introducing the fabulous Jason!’ and I would come out and start banging away much to my parents delight. I too enjoyed it to the point that I started to go up to my parents unsolicited and say, ‘Dad, introduce me again!’”

By age six, not only had Jason gotten his first real drum set, but he was also taking lessons from the legendary New Orleans drummer James Black. At age seven he was sitting in with his father’s jazz group, as well as playingwith his trombonist brother Delfeayo. Jason was progressing so rapidly as a drummer that in 1984 his father started using him consistently on engagements. Jason was starting to become a seasoned road veteran before the age of nine, even traveling to the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston for older brother Delfeayo’s recital.

Though Jason had also taken up violin at age five, drums remained his primary focus throughout his grade school years. However, in his last year living in Richmond, VA,it was as a member of a junior youth orchestra that he first discovered the percussion section. The following year, Jason gave up the violin and focused exclusively on percussion. In 1991, he auditioned and was accepted to the acclaimed New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts High School (NOCCA). Throughout his high school years he continued to hone his skills by playing gigs with his father and brothers, as well as studying orchestral percussion techniques at the venerable Eastern Music Festival. Shortly after graduation from NOCCA in 1995, Marsalis ascended to the drum throne of a new group lead by virtuoso pianist and former sideman for Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts. Despite a demanding touring schedule with Roberts, Marsalis furthered his educational goals by attending Loyola University in New Orleans, as well as studying composition with notable classical composer, Roger Dickerson. While Marsalis made appearances with such international jazz luminaries as Joe Henderson and Lionel Hampton, he was visible on the New Orleans scene working with a diverse cross section of bands from Casa Samba (Brazilian), Neslort (jazz fusion) Summer Stages (children’s theater), Dr. Michael White (traditional jazz) and many others. It was in 1998 that he co-founded the Latin-jazz group Los Hombres Calientes. While recording two albums with the group, Marsalis also produced two albums under his own name, Year of the Drummer (1998) and Music in Motion (2000), as well as producing reissues and current recordings of his father on their self-owned label, ELM Records.

In 2000, Jason left the Los Hombres group to attain more focus with the Marcus Roberts trio. It was around that time the Marsalis started to play the vibraphone on gigs in New Orleans. This evolved in yet another chapter in Marsalis’ career as he recorded on the vibes with clarinetist Tim Laughlin and drummer Shannon Powell while starting to lead his own band on vibes. In 2005, Marsalis’ made a recording of George Gershwin’s “Concerto in F” with the Marcus Roberts Trio and the Saito Kinen orchestra. It was a project that involved fusing jazz and classical music and it was an important moment for the Trio. While this exciting event was taking place in Tokyo, Japan, it was marred by the events happening in his hometown, Hurricane Katrina. Even though his career took a slight hit after that event and living in Brooklyn for a year, Jason returned to New Orleans in 2007 to put the pieces back together. After returning to New Orleans in 2007, his reach with the types of bands widened considerably. Early that year he recorded with John Ellis and Doublewide on a well received album entitled “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow”. He also recorded and produced an album of Thelonious Monk’s music with his father entitled “An Open Letter to Thelonious”. In January of 2008, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) called for him to start teaching the students. He also started working on the traditional jazz scene with musicians such as Lars Edegran and Tommy Sancton at Preservation Hall and Palm Court Jazz Cafe. It was in April of 2008 that Marsalis was asked to play the vibraphone with the legendary Lionel Hampton Orchestra at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans. In fall of that year, he was on a double-bill tour with Double-wide and a jazz-fusion group from Denton, Texas, Snarky Puppy. After that tour, Marsalis would make guest appearances with the group and has developed a following amongst the groups fans.

In 2009, the Marsalis Family would receive the NEA Jazz Masters award. In June of that year, the family would appear at the White House and the Kennedy Center to do a tribute show to their father. The concert was made into an album entitled, “Music Redeems”. Later that year, Marsalis would release his first new album in 9 years and his debut album on vibes, “Music Update”. In 2010, the bassist from the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, Christian Fabien, called him to participate in a recording session with drummer Ed Littlefield and pianist Reuel Lubag. The made two records, Christian’s “West Coast Session” and Ed’s “Walking Between Worlds”. The latter would include folk songs from the leader’s native Alaskan Tlingit tribe from his hometown of Sitka, Alaska. That project inspired the group to be named the Native Jazz Quartet, a group that would arrange folk songs into jazz tunes. Their first recording of that concept was “NJQ Stories”, recorded in 2012. Marsalis was involved in another genrebreaking collaboration as the Marcus Roberts Trio released an album with banjoist Bela Fleck. The combination of jazz and bluegrass was entitled “Across the Imaginary Divide” and the unit toured successfully that year.

2013 was a monumental year in which Marsalis released his next recording as a leader on vibes entitled “In a World of Mallets”. The album went to number 1 on the CMJ Radio Charts and also won an Offbeat Magazine award, a New Orleans music magazine, for best Contemporary Jazz Album. Marsalis also participated in a session produced by Bill Cosby by playing vibes for music used in Cosby’s Comedy Central special, “Far From Finished”. There was even recordings from the drum kit as Marcus Roberts released three recordings that year. Two with Wynton Marsalis, “Together Again – In the Studio” and “Together Again – Live in Concert”, and the ambitious original trio suite from Roberts, “From Rags to Rhythm”.

With each passing year Jason Marsalis continues to grow and develop as both a composer and performer. With a fire in his heart and a passion for the music, his will to swing has never been more resolute. The maturity and the command he possesses over his music is clearly evident to those who have heard or seen him.