The Ellis Marsalis Quartet

Ellis Marsalis, the patriarch of the first family of New Orleans jazz, is a local and international treasure. As bandleader, educator and 2011 NEA Jazz Master, he is regarded as the premier modern jazz pianist in New Orleans. At this special event, presented by the Newcomb-Tulane College Office of Cocurricular Programs’ Lagniappe Series, Marsalis will perform with his Quartet and participate in a special audience Q&A session following the concert.

For more information, email donuts@tulane.edu or call (504) 865-5728.

Dixon Hall is located near the corner of Newcomb Place and Zimple St., next to Tilton Memorial Library. For a campus map, go to www.tinyurl.com/tulmap.


About Ellis Marsalis: The term “modern jazz” may seem dated now, but it carried particular weight when Ellis Marsalis was coming of musical age in the 1950s and 1960s – especially in New Orleans, a city where tourism demanded that jazz musicians be nothing more than traditionalists. Marsalis was different, attuned to jazz’s future. He developed a lean and commanding approach to the piano trio and helped create a modern movement in New Orleans with his collective American Jazz Quintet and his own Quartet, while also educating and mentoring the next generation of internationally-renowned jazz artists, including Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison Jr., Nicholas Payton, Harry Connick Jr., and his sons Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis and Jason Marsalis.

As an educator, Marsalis has taught Jazz Studies at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. At the University of New Orleans, he served for 12 years as the first director of the Coca-Cola endowed chair of Jazz Studies, before retiring in 2001.

He was recently awarded the 2011 NEA Jazz Master award. Honored alongside his sons, musicians Branford, Delfeayo, Jason and Wynton Marsalis, it is the first time that the prestigious honor has been given to a group.


The Ellis Marsalis Quartet
Thursday, October 21
7 p.m.
Tulane University (6823 St. Charles Ave.) at Dixon Hall
Free and open to the public.