Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
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Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. (November 14, 1934 – April 1, 2020) was an American jazz pianist and educator. Active since the late 1940s, Marsalis came to greater attention in the 1980s and 1990s as the patriarch of the musical Marsalis family, when sons Branford and Wynton became popular jazz musicians. Early life 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 saxophone during high school but switched to piano while studying classical music at Dillard University, graduating in 1955. He later attended graduate school at Loyola University New Orleans. In the 1950s and 1960s he worked with Ed Blackwell, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, an ...
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New Orleans
New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nueva Orleans) is a consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the southeastern region of the of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 according to the 2020 U.S. census, it is the
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Cannonball Adderley
Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928August 8, 1975) was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is perhaps best remembered for the 1966 soul jazz single " Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", which was written for him by his keyboardist Joe Zawinul and became a major crossover hit on the pop and R&B charts. A cover version by the Buckinghams, who added lyrics, also reached No. 5 on the charts. Adderley worked with Miles Davis, first as a member of the Davis sextet, appearing on the seminal records '' Milestones'' (1958) and '' Kind of Blue'' (1959), and then on his own 1958 album '' Somethin' Else''. He was the elder brother of jazz trumpeter Nat Adderley, who was a longtime member of his band. Early life and career Julian Edwin Adderley was born on September 15, 1928, in Tampa, Florida to high school guidance counselor and cornet player Julian Carlyle Adderley and elementary school teacher Jessie Johnson. Elementary sch ...
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New Orleans Center For Creative Arts
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, or NOCCA, is the regional, pre-professional arts training center for high school students in Louisiana. NOCCA opened in 1973 as a professional arts training center for secondary school-age children. Located in New Orleans, it provides intensive instruction in culinary arts, creative writing, dance, media arts, music (classical, jazz, vocal), theatre arts (drama, musical theatre, theatre design), and visual arts. NOCCA was founded by a group of artists, educators, business leaders, and community activists. Tuition is free to all Louisiana students who meet audition requirements. Students from over 100 public, private, parochial and home schools attend in the afternoon or late-day as well as Academic Studio students who attend NOCCA for the full day. In 2000, NOCCA moved to a campus in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood. Before that, NOCCA was housed for many years in an old elementary school building on Perrier Street in Uptown New Orleans ...
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Jazz Improvisation
Jazz improvisation is the spontaneous invention of melodic solo lines or accompaniment parts in a performance of jazz music. It is one of the defining elements of jazz. Improvisation is composing on the spot, when a singer or instrumentalist invents melodies and lines over a chord progression played by rhythm section instruments (piano, guitar, double bass) and accompanied by drums. Although blues, rock, and other genres use improvisation, it is done over relatively simple chord progressions which often remain in one key (or closely related keys using the circle of fifths, such as a song in C Major modulating to G Major). Jazz improvisation is distinguished from this approach by chordal complexity, often with one or more chord changes per bar, altered chords, extended chords, tritone substitution, unusual chords (e.g., augmented chords), and extensive use of ii–V–I progression, all of which typically move through multiple keys within a single song. However, since the release ...
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Courtney Pine
Courtney Pine, (born 18 March 1964), is a British jazz musician, who was the principal founder in the 1980s of the black British band the Jazz Warriors. Although known primarily for his saxophone playing, Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the flute, clarinet, bass clarinet and keyboards. On his 2011 album, ''Europa'', he plays almost exclusively bass clarinet. Background Pine's parents were Jamaican immigrants, his father a carpenter and his mother a housing manager. As a child, he wanted to be an astronaut. Born in London, Pine lived in the ‘Avenues’ area of Kensal Green in north-west London, before moving to Wembley and attending Kingsbury High School, where he studied classical clarinet, teaching himself the saxophone from the age of 14. Maya Jaggi"Fusion visionary" ''The Guardian'', 30 September 2000. He began his music career playing reggae, touring in 1981 with Clint Eastwood & General Saint. Career In 1986 Pine's debut album '' Journey to the Urge Wi ...
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Marcus Roberts
Marthaniel "Marcus" Roberts (born August 7, 1963) is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and teacher. Early life Roberts was born in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. His mother was a gospel singer who had gone blind as a teenager, and his father was a longshoreman. Blind since age five due to glaucoma and cataracts, Roberts started learning the piano at age five by picking out notes on the instrument at his church until his parents bought a piano when he was eight. He attended the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, Florida, the alma mater of Ray Charles. Roberts began teaching himself piano at an early age, having his first lesson at age 12, and then studying with Leonidas Lipovetsky while attending Florida State University. Career In the 1980s, Roberts replaced pianist Kenny Kirkland in Wynton Marsalis's band. Like Marsalis's, his music is rooted in the traditional jazz of the past. His style has been influenced more by Jel ...
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Eddie Harris
Eddie Harris (October 20, 1934 – November 5, 1996) was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His best-known compositions are "Freedom Jazz Dance", popularized by Miles Davis in 1966, and "Listen Here". Biography Harris was born and grew up in Chicago, Illinois, United States. His father was from Cuba and his mother from Mississippi. He studied music under Walter Dyett at DuSable High School, as had many other successful Chicago musicians (such as Nat King Cole, Clifford Jordan, Johnny Griffin, Gene Ammons, Julian Priester, and others). He later studied music at Roosevelt University, by which time he was proficient on piano, vibraphone, and tenor saxophone. While in college, he performed professionally with Gene Ammons. After college, Harris was military draft, drafted into the United States Army and while serving in Europe, he was accepte ...
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David Newman (jazz Musician)
David Newman may refer to: Entertainment *David "Fathead" Newman (1933–2009), American jazz saxophonist *David Newman (screenwriter) (1937–2003), American screenwriter *David Newman (composer) (born 1954), American composer *David Newman (singer) (born 1963), aka Durga Das, American singer/songwriter Sports * Dave Newman (footballer) (1923–1995), Australian footballer for Melbourne * Dave Newman (Canadian football) (born 1956), former Canadian Football League wide receiver Other *David Newman (politician) (born 1944), Canadian politician * David Newman (priest) (born 1954), Archdeacon of Loughborough since 2009 *David Newman (political geographer) (born 1956), British/Israeli political geographer *David Newman (physicist) David E. Newman is a professor in the physics department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He has a Ph.D. in plasma physics Plasma () ...
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Nicholas Payton
Nicholas Payton (born September 26, 1973) is an American trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist. A Grammy Award winner, he is from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also a prolific and provocative writer who comments on a multitude of subjects, including music, race, politics, and life in America. Biography The son of bassist and sousaphonist Walter Payton, he began playing the trumpet at the age of four and by age nine was sitting in with the Young Tuxedo Brass Band alongside his father. He began his professional career at ten years old as a member of James Andrews' All-Star Brass and was given his first steady gig by guitarist Danny Barker at The Famous Door on Bourbon Street. He enrolled at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and then at the University of New Orleans. After touring with Marcus Roberts and Elvin Jones in the early 1990s, Payton signed a contract with Verve Records; his first album, ''From This Moment'', appeared in 1995. In 1996 he performed on the sound ...
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Marlon Jordan
Marlon Jordan (born August 21, 1970) is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. Early life Born Marlon Jordan, one of six performers of a family of New Orleans musicians. He is the son of saxophonist Edward "Kidd" Jordan and classical pianist Edvidge Jordan, and brother flutist Kent, sisters violinist Rachel, and jazz singer Stephanie. While they have pursued separate careers, the family frequently collaborates. Marlon started playing trumpet in the fourth grade, and graduated from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. He knew Wynton Marsalis (a major influence) and Terence Blanchard when he was a child. Marlon recorded as a sideman with his brother Kent (1987) and Dennis González (1988). Career At age 18, recorded his debut album as a leader, ''For You Only'' (1988), Branford Marsalis makes four appearances on tenor; Marlon's brother, flautist Kent Jordan, is heard on the opening "Jepetto's Despair," and there are two duets with bassist/pianist Elton Hero ...
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Donald Harrison
Donald Harrison Jr. (born June 23, 1960) is an African-American jazz saxophonist and the Big Chief of The Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans Cultural Group from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Berklee College of Music in 2021. He is also an NEA Jazz Master. He is the uncle and former tutor of Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, also known as Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. Biography Harrison was born to Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr in 1960 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The foundation of Harrison's music comes from his lifelong participation in New Orleans culture. He started in New Orleans second-line culture and studied New Orleans secret tribal culture, under his father, Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr. Whereas, Harrison Jr. is currently the Chief of Congo Square in Afro-New Orleans Culture. He studied at the Berklee College of Music. As a professional musician he worked with Roy Haynes and Jack McDuff, before joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messeng ...
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Harry Connick Jr
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick Jr. (born September 11, 1967) is an American singer, pianist, composer, actor, and television host. He has sold over 28million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with 16million in certified sales. He has had seven top20 US albums, and ten number-one US jazz albums, earning more number-one albums than any other artist in US jazz chart history. Connick's best-selling album in the United States is his Christmas album ''When My Heart Finds Christmas'' (1993). His highest-charting album is his release '' Only You'' (2004), which reached No.5 in the US and No.6 in Britain. He has won three Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards. He played Leo Markus, the husband of Grace Adler (played by Debra Messing) on the NBC sitcom '' Will & Grace'' from 2002 to 2006. Connick began his acting career as a tail gunner in the World War II film '' Memphis Belle ...
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