Ellis Marsalis

The patriarch of a large family of jazz musicians, along with his sons Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason, pianist Ellis Marsalis had to wait for their consecration before being recognized for his talent. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 14, 1934, Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. began working with Ed Blackwell, brothers Julian Cannonball and Nat Adderley (1962) and Al Hirt before teaching at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts in the 1970s, where his students included Terence Blanchard, Harry Connick Jr. and Nicholas Payton. In 1985, he recorded the first of a long series of leader albums for various labels, including Columbia, including Homecoming (1986) in collaboration with Eddie Harris and tributes to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. He formed a trio, a quartet and a quintet, and collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on Joe Cool's Blues (1994) and Branford Marsalis on Loved Ones (1996). The Marsalis Family reunited in 2002 on A Jazz Celebration and again in 2010 on Music Redeems. In 2018, Ellis Marsalis was awarded an honorary doctorate from Boston's Berklee College of Music and inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. He died on April 1, 2020, at the age of 85, of pneumonia linked to the Covid-19 coronavirus.