Delfeayo Marsalis

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Delfeayo Marsalis is an American jazz trombonist, producer and teacher. He was born in New Orleans in 1965, the son of the pianist and music professor Ellis Marsalis Jr. His brothers Wynton, Branford and Jason Marsalis are a trumpeter, a saxophonist and a drummer, and in 2011 the whole family received the NEA Jazz Masters Award. He studied at the Berklee College of Music and in 2004 earned a master's degree in jazz trombone at the University of Louisville.

Music and breakthrough

Delfeayo recorded eight albums of his own, including Pontius Pilate's Decision in 1992, Musashi in 1997, Sweet Thunder in 2011 and The Last Southern Gentlemen in 2014. He is best known as a producer of acoustic jazz records. Together with the sound engineer Patrick Smith he came up with a phrase about getting more wood sound from the bass without plugging the bass in directly. That phrase first appeared on his brother Branford's album Renaissance from 1987, and from then on it served as a benchmark for the recording quality of a great deal of acoustic jazz from the late 1980s onwards. In 2000 he founded the Uptown Music Theatre in New Orleans, which has trained more than three hundred young people.

Influence

In this way Marsalis contributes to the sound of modern acoustic jazz not only as a trombonist but above all as a producer, and he continues the musical family tradition of New Orleans.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1992Pontius Pilate's Decision
• 1997Musashi
• 2011Sweet Thunder
• 2014The Last Southern Gentlemen
• 2016Make America Great Again!
• 2020Jazz Party