Jason Marsalis

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

Jason Marsalis is an American jazz drummer, vibraphonist, composer, producer and bandleader, a member of the musical Marsalis family. He was born on 4 March 1977 in New Orleans, the youngest son of Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis and the pianist and music teacher Ellis Marsalis. His brothers are Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo, Ellis III and Mboya Kenyatta, and the first three are also jazz musicians. He studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and at McMain Magnet Secondary School. In 1998, after three years, he left Loyola University, where he was studying classical music, to become a musician.

Music and breakthrough

At six he took lessons from the New Orleans drummer James Black. As a teenager he made his recording debut on Delfeayo's Pontius Pilate's Decision in 1992. He worked as an accompanist in mainstream jazz, funk and jazz fusion, including with Neslort and Snarky Puppy, with the Brazilian percussion ensemble Casa Samba and in Celtic music with Beth Patterson. He put the percussionist Bill Summers in touch with the trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, which gave rise to Los Hombres Calientes. In 1994, at seventeen, he toured with the Marcus Roberts Trio with Gershwin for Lovers, and he continues to work with Roberts.

Influence

During the coronavirus years, with venues closed, he re-enrolled at Loyola and earned his degree in May 2026, thirty-one years after his first enrolment. Marsalis shows that the New Orleans jazz tradition is broad and encompasses more than trumpet and saxophone: his instruments are drums and vibraphone, and he also writes his own music.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1998Year of the Drummer
• 2000Music in Motion
• 2008Music Update
• 2022Christmas Everywhere