Jazz Articles

Delfeayo Marsalis Uptown Jazz Orchestra: Uptown on Mardi Gras Day

by Jack Bowers
March 24, 2023

Even though New Orleans' lively and colorful holiday festival is the focal point of trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis' Uptown Jazz Orchestra's latest recording, this is an album that can be heard and appreciated at any time of the year, as there is never a day when pleasure and happiness aren't in style. Delfeayo, a member of the multi-talented Marsalis family from New Orleans that includes brothers Branford (who is a guest artist on two tracks), trumpeter Wynton and ...

Delfeayo Marsalis: Kalamazoo

by Dan Bilawsky
November 2, 2017

How is it that we haven't been gifted a live album from trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis before? He's been such an important part of the fabric of this music, whether producing works of lasting significance for other jazz greats in the studio, sharing space with his famous family, or leading his Uptown Orchestra through a rousing set in the Crescent City, yet there's nothing in his leader discography to highlight what it's truly like to hear one of his shows in ...

Delfeayo Marsalis: Sweet Thunder

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 11, 2011

Was Delfeayo Marsalis undertaking a task too challenging when he recorded music from one of Duke Ellington's most beloved albums to make Sweet Thunder? Gunther Schuller offers a doctrine that seems to suggest this has been so. Apparently the size and composition of the ensemble lead to this mishap. Would it have been remiss, to replicate the tonal colors that Ellington brought forth when he recorded Such Sweet Thunder (Columbia, 1957)--his jazz musical interpretation/relocation of the iambic pentameter of William ...

Delfeayo Marsalis: Sweet Thunder

by Edward Blanco
January 14, 2011

Acclaimed trombonist and member of the first family of jazz, Delfeayo Marsalis launches Sweet Thunder: Duke & Shak, an original theatrical jazz production culled from live performances in thirty-six locations across the country. The play was born from Marsalis' affinity for the music of Duke Ellington and the poetry of Shakespeare: first brought to the musical stage in the 1957 production of Such Sweet Thunder at the Shakespeare Festival I Stratford, Canada. Both Ellington and Billy Strayhorn were invited to ...

Delfeayo Marsalis: Minions Dominion

by Joel Roberts
February 23, 2007

Delfeayo Marsalis, one of the less famous members of the most famous family in jazz today, has made his name mostly behind the scenes as a Grammy-winning producer of more than 75 albums for, among others, older brothers Wynton and Branford, Harry Connick, Jr., Marcus Roberts, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. But he is also among the more commanding trombonists of his generation and a composer of far-reaching ambition, although he's recorded surprisingly little as a leader. Minions Dominion, ...

Delfeayo Marsalis: Minions Dominion

by Budd Kopman
January 11, 2007

Delfeayo Marsalis Minions Dominion Troubador Jass 2006

What does the term “mainstream" mean to you? In jazz, the label is applied to music which has time-tested, codified rhythm and structure. After that, it can get more mainstream if the melody and harmony are easily understood. This is not a value judgment about good or bad music, but rather a way of placing the music within a framework of expectation. However, that expectation ...

Delfeayo Marsalis: Minions Dominion

by Jim Santella
October 9, 2006

Recorded in 2002, Minions Dominion features trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis with two quintets in a program of straight-ahead bliss. His compositions burst with the pride of tradition while emphasizing innermost feelings in every bar. Drummer Elvin Jones carries both quintets with a powerful rhythmic drive that just won't quit.

Marsalis solos with authority, inserting musical quotes spontaneously as the mood takes him in different directions. His driving bebop lines recall the powerful energy and timbre of J.J. Johnson, while ...

Delfeayo Marsalis: Minions Dominion

by Dan McClenaghan
October 2, 2006

Marsalis may be the most recognizable family name in jazz today, due to patriarch Ellis and his four sons: trumpeter Wynton, saxophonist Branford, trombonist Delfeayo and drummer Jason. The oldest of the four brothers, Wynton, has the highest profile, and Branford falls in not far behind. The third son, Delfeayo, with only three releases in the past fifteen years, may seem less prolific than his older brothers on a lead artist basis, but he has produced or co-produced at least ...