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Marcus Roberts: Jazz Piano And Technology's Promise
by Lawrence Peryer
Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on pianist Marcus Roberts. Roberts plays jazz piano like he's lived through its entire history. His style pulls from Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller as much as it does from bebop. He spent years in Wynton Marsalis' band, has performed piano concertos with Seiji Ozawa, and today leads The Modern Jazz Generation, a 12-piece ensemble encompassing three decades of musicians. Roberts is here today to talk about something beyond ...
Continue ReadingExploration by the Marcus Roberts Trio, Interview with VA Virginia Schenck re Jazz at All Saints Including Nnenna Freelon & Brandee Younger, Keyboard Jazz With Bobby Timmons, Joey DeFrancesco, Azymuth and More
by David W. Daniels
Interview with local Atlanta jazz vocalist “VA" Virginia Schenck about the Jazz At All Saints series, which will include Nnenna Freelon and Brandee Younger. End of the month keyboard special--featuring organists, pianists, Fender Rhodes and synthesizer jazz artists. Playlist Marcus Roberts Trio “Exploration"--from Time And Circumstance (Columbia) 00:00 Interview Segment #1 with VA Virginia Schenck 16:47 Virginia Schenck “Long As You're Living"-from VA (Airborne Ecstasy) 21:39 Interview Segment #2 with VA Virginia Schenck 26:37 Nnenna Freelon “Changed"--from Beneath ...
Continue ReadingMarcus Roberts And The Modern Jazz Generation At The Kimmel Center
by Victor L. Schermer
Marcus Roberts and the Modern Jazz Generation Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Perelman Theater Philadelphia, PA October 11, 2019 Marcus Roberts is one of the great jazz pianists of his generation, coming up in the 1980s in Wynton Marsalis' band and since then more or less following Marsalis' emphasis on playing jazz classics rather than heading in new directions. He has developed a solid track record on his ...
Continue ReadingMarcus Roberts & The Modern Jazz Generation at The Flynn Center for The Performing Arts
by Doug Collette
Marcus Roberts & The Modern Jazz Generation Flynn Center for the Performing Arts Burlington, Vermont October 24, 2014 The last time pianist Marcus Roberts and his trio of bassist Rodney Jordan and drummer Jason Marsalis inhabited the MainStage of the Flynn Center, it was in the company of visionary banjo master Bela Fleck, and the four of them wasted no time in generating intense improvisation permeated with the joy of seemingly telepathic musicianly communication.
Continue ReadingMarcus Roberts: Portraits in Blue
by Marc Davis
This has to be the most raucous, the most bluesy, the most improvisational “Rhapsody in Blue" ever recorded. And not all of the best improvisation is by Marcus Roberts. Wailing clarinets and wandering trumpets abound. And it is all in a spirit of the original, so much so that I believe jazz-loving George Gershwin would have approved.All of Gershwin's original music is there, but much of it is taken at unusual tempos--speeded up, slowed down or synchopated--with many ...
Continue ReadingMarcus Roberts: The Music of Jelly Roll Morton
by Nick Catalano
In the midst of Jazz at Lincoln Center's May celebration of New Orleans music, Marcus Roberts and his trio, accompanied by a choir of horns, constructed a tribute to Jelly Roll Morton. The concert featured classic Morton compositions performed with some enterprising improvisations.Morton's importance as a jazz pioneer cannot be overstated, and the extent of his contributions is being studied properly under the microscope of Jazz at Lincoln Center. His breakthrough stride pianism, his introduction of Latin (tango, ...
Continue ReadingMarcus Roberts: Has A Lot More To Do
by Tod Smith
With a foundation in the church and a passion for America's music, Marcus Roberts is easily one of the most prolific pianists of his generation. Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida and influenced by the early exposure to his mother's gospel singing, he decided that he wanted to be a jazz pianist after listening to the music of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Mary Lou Williams and others on the radio. A student of classical piano at Florida State University, Roberts joined the ...
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