Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Marcus Roberts, born on August 7, 1963 in Jacksonville, Florida achieved fame as a stride pianist committed to celebrating classic standards and jazz traditions. Blind since his youth, he attended the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, also the alma mater of Ray Charles.

Playing piano at an early age, he studied the instrument with world-renown pianist Leonidas Lipovetsky while attending Florida State University. In 1985, he got his big break when Wynton Marsalis chose him as his new sideman. He became a close friend and disciple of Marsalis, and collaborated with him on many projects during the ensuing years.

With Marsalis’ support and soon after joining him, Roberts began cutting his own records. His albums tend to be homage to past jazz giants. However, his ability and technique as a pianist have always been highly regarded and his music has added to the vocabulary of modern jazz piano and the piano trio.

Roberts has provided the soundtrack to the 1999 film Guinevere serves as Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies in the music program at Florida State University and is a Steinway Artist. He has amassed a catalogue of nearly two-dozen albums as a leader with several more as a sideman.

He excels as an improviser and interpreter in his solo performances and creates interesting and daring arrangements as a large band leader, but his chamber work will endure as his true contribution to American music.

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