Jazz Articles about Marcus Roberts

About Marcus Roberts

Radio & Podcasts

Happy Birthday Marcus Roberts! Also Tony Bennett, Allan Holdsworth, and more

by David W. Daniels
August 11, 2026

In addition to the artists named in the title, this edition of Exploration recognizes the classic genius of The Quintet (Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charlie Mingus, and Max Roach), Horace Silver, and others. More new music from Joe Alterman, Doug Webb, and Terri Lyne Carrington. Birthdays recognized include Eddie Jefferson, Ravi Coltrane, and “Pops" (Louis Armstrong). Playlist Marcus Roberts “Exploration" from Time And Circumstance (Columbia) 00:00 Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell and Charles ...

Album Review

Cincinnati Pops Orchestra: Harlem Renaissance

Read "Harlem Renaissance" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 1, 2026

New York's Harlem Renaissance, which spanned the 1920s and '30s, was an intellectual and cultural movement of music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship that reshaped African-American culture and mores in Harlem and beyond and led to a new militancy and dedication to the cause of civil rights and equality for people of color in the U.S. On Harlem Renaissance, the celebrated Cincinnati Pops Orchestra honors the movement by delving into its music and depicting the ...

Radio & Podcasts

Marcus Roberts: Jazz Piano And Technology's Promise

by Lawrence Peryer
December 13, 2025

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 ...

Radio & Podcasts

Exploration 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
September 3, 2025

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 ...

Live Review

Marcus Roberts And The Modern Jazz Generation At The Kimmel Center

by Victor L. Schermer
October 15, 2019

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 ...

Live Review

Marcus Roberts & The Modern Jazz Generation at The Flynn Center for The Performing Arts

by Doug Collette
November 2, 2014

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.

Album Review

Marcus Roberts: Portraits in Blue

Read "Portraits in Blue" reviewed by Marc Davis

by Marc Davis
June 18, 2014

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 ...