Ellis Marsalis Jr.

• Name — Ellis Marsalis Jr. • Birth Name — Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. • Born — 14 November 1934 • Birthplace — New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. • Died — 1 April 2020 • Place of death — New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. • Genre — Jazz, classical • Occupation — Musician, educator • Instrument — Piano • Years Active — 1949–2020 • Label — Elm, Blue Note, Columbia, Sony, AFO Records • Website — ellismarsalis.com

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Marsalis was the son of Florence Marie (née Robertson) and Ellis Marsalis Sr., a businessman and social activist. Marsalis and his wife Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis had six sons: Branford, Wynton, Ellis III, Delfeayo, Mboya, and Jason. Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo, and Jason also became jazz musicians. Ellis III is a poet and photographer. Marsalis played tenor saxophone and piano during high school, and performed locally with a rhythm and blues band that included pianist Roger Dickerson. After high school, Marsalis served a year in the Marine Corps where he performed on piano for the majority of his duty. He subsequently attended Dillard University, where he graduated in 1955 with a degree in music education. While attending Dillard, he worked as the high school band director at what was then Xavier University Preparatory School on Magazine Street, where he witnessed the classical playing of one of the students, piano prodigy James Booker. Marsalis later attended graduate school at Loyola University New Orleans. In the 1950s and 1960s he worked with Ed Blackwell, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, and Al Hirt. During the 1970s, he taught at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. His students have included Lauren Bernofsky, Terence Blanchard, Harry Connick Jr., Donald Harrison, Kent Jordan, Marlon Jordan, and Nicholas Payton.

Marsalis recorded nearly twenty of his own albums and was featured on many discs with such musicians as David "Fathead" Newman, Eddie Harris, Marcus Roberts, and Courtney Pine. As a teacher, he encouraged his students to learn from history while also making discoveries in music on their own. "We don't teach jazz, we teach students," he once said about his ability to teach jazz improvisation. As a leading educator at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, the University of New Orleans, and Xavier University of Louisiana, Marsalis influenced the careers of countless musicians, as well as his four musician sons: Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason. Marsalis retired from UNO in 2001. In May 2007, Marsalis received an honorary doctorate from Tulane University for his contributions to jazz and musical education.

On April 1, 2020, Marsalis died at the age of 85 from pneumonia brought on by COVID-19. Municipal pandemic safety measures precluded a traditional jazz funeral procession. The short documentary film titled Death Is Our Business by Frontline briefly covered the situation when investigating the pandemic's effects on the New Orleans funeral industry.

Marsalis and his wife, Dolores, were Catholic and raised all their children in the faith. The youngest of his sons is Mboya Kenyatta Marsalis, who is diagnosed with autism and has been cared for by his brother Delfeayo since their father's death. Their mother, Dolores, died in 2017.

• 1985: Syndrome (ELM, 1985) • 1985: Homecoming with Eddie Harris (Spindletop, 1985) • 1986: Piano in E (Rounder, 1991) • 1989: A Night at Snug Harbor, New Orleans (Somethin' Else, 1990) • 1990: Ellis Marsalis Trio (Blue Note, 1991) • 1991: Heart of Gold (Columbia, 1992) • 1993: Whistle Stop (Columbia, 1994) • 1994: Joe Cool's Blues with Wynton Marsalis (Columbia, 1995) • 1995: Loved Ones with Branford Marsalis (Sony Music, 1996) • 1998?: Twelve's It (Columbia, 1998) • 1998: On the First Occasion (ELM, 2013) • 1999: Duke in Blue (Columbia, 1999) • 2000: Afternoon Session (Music in the Vines, 2001) • 2005?: Ruminations in New York (ESP Disk, 2005) • 2007: An Open Letter to Thelonious (ELM, 2008) • 2011?: A New Orleans Christmas Carol (ELM, 2011) • 2012: Pure Pleasure for the Piano with Makoto Ozone (Verve, 2012) • 2017: Live at Jazzfest 2017 (Munck Music, 2017) • 2017?: The Ellis Marsalis Quintet Plays the Music of Ellis Marsalis (ELM, 2017)

With American Jazz Quintet • 1987 From Bad to Badder • 1996 In the Beginning With Branford Marsalis • 1986 Royal Garden Blues • 2003 Romare Bearden Revealed With Delfeayo Marsalis • 1997 Musashi • 2014 The Last Southern Gentlemen With Wynton Marsalis • 1981 Wynton Marsalis • 1982 Fathers and Sons • 1986 J Mood • 1990 Standard Time, Vol. 3: The Resolution of Romance With Marsalis family • 2002 Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration • 2010 Music Redeems With Irvin Mayfield • 1998 Irvin Mayfield • 2001 How Passion Falls • 2008 Love Songs, Ballads, and Standards • 2011 A Love Letter to New Orleans With Kermit Ruffins • 1992 World on a String • 1996 Hold on Tight With Dave Young • 1996 Two by Two Vol. 2 With others • 1958 Boogie Live...1958, Ed Blackwell • 1962 In the Bag, Nat Adderley • 1984 Friends, Steve Masakowski • 1987 King Midas & the Golden Touch, Michael Caine • 1989 Have You Heard?, Rich Matteson • 1990 Return to the Wide Open Spaces, David "Fathead" Newman with Cornell Dupree • 1990 Solos (1940), Art Tatum • 1991 As Serenity Approaches, Marcus Roberts • 1992 25, Harry Connick Jr. • 1996 In the Sweet Bye and Bye, Preservation Hall Jazz Band • 1996 Next Generation, Harold Battiste • 1996 Suite Memories, Gerald Wilson • 1996 Ways of Warmdaddy, Wessell Anderson • 2006 Marsalis Music Honors Series: Jimmy Cobb, Jimmy Cobb • 2006 The Sonet Blues Story: 1977, Snooks Eaglin • 2008 Jazz for Peanuts, David Benoit • 2008 Simply Grand, Irma Thomas • 2009 Say It Plain, Scotty Barnhart • 2015 A Very Swingin' Basie Christmas!, Count Basie Orchestra

The following is established of the heading itself.

The following is established of origins and background. Born in 1934 at New Orleans. Institutional cataloguing adds that ellis Marsalis Jr. Died in 2020 at New Orleans.