DELFEAYO MARSALIS & THE UPTOWN JAZZ ORCHESTRA

Delfeayo Marsalis is one of the top trombonists, composers, and producers in jazz today. Known for his “technical excellence, inventive mind and frequent touches of humor…” (Los Angeles Times), he is “…one of the best, most imaginative and musical of the trombonists of his generation.” (San Francisco Examiner).

Early influences on Delfeayo’s style include J.J. Johnson, Curtis Fuller, Al Grey, Tyree Glenn, Tommy Dorsey, and Duke Ellington’s trombone masters. From the age of 17 until the present, he has produced over 100 recordings for major artists, including Harry Connick Jr, Spike Lee, Terence Blanchard, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and his father and brothers.

In January 2011, Delfeayo and the Marsalis family (father Ellis and brothers Branford, Wynton, and Jason) earned the nation’s highest jazz honor – a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award, thus dubbing them “America’s First Family of Jazz.”

On packing a full jazz orchestra into a tiny historic jazz club: “Whatever you have to do,” the trombonist says philosophically. But when the band plays the swing and bebop hits from the 1930s through the 1960s, the music is just as tight. From Mardi Gras music to modern jazz, this band does it all.  An intimate experience like no other!