Long renowned as a leading modern jazz pianist and the "godfather of jazz education" in his native New Orleans, Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr., has become further known in recent years as the benevolent patriarch of America's "first family of jazz." Throughout his career, Marsalis has been in high demand as a performer at venerable locations such as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and at festivals and workshops throughout the country.

Marsalis began his music studies as an aspiring clarinet and tenor saxophone player who studied piano as a secondary instrument. He began his formal music studies at the Xavier University Junior School of Music, and later attended several other well regarded local music schools. A clarinet major at Dillard University in New Orleans, Marsalis graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education in 1955 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps shortly thereafter. While stationed in Southern California, he played clarinet until his band lost its pianist and he was asked to serve as a replacement. He gained valuable experience and had an enjoyable tour of duty performing on a television show titled Dress Blue and a radio show called Leatherneck Songbook, both sponsored by the Marine Corps.

Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr.

After his discharge from the military in 1957, Marsalis returned to New Orleans to resume private teaching and playing with the American Jazz Quintet, which he had founded in early 1950s. He married Dolores Ferdinand in 1958, and their family grew over the years to include six sons--Branford, Wynton, Ellis III, Delfeayo, Mboya, and Jason--four of whom have followed in their father's footsteps as jazz musicians.

In 1964, the family (which included four sons by then) moved to the small rural town of Breaux Bridge, La., where Marsalis became a band and choral director at Carver High School for two years. He subsequently returned to New Orleans and began to freelance on the local music scene. Between 1966 and 1973, Marsalis performed with the Al Hirt Band (1967-70) and the Storyville Jazz Band (1972-73) while teaching as an adjunct professor at Xavier University.

In 1974, Marsalis joined the faculty of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) High School, a magnet school for the arts. He spent the next 12 years there teaching instrumental music and developing a curriculum for jazz studies. Some of his NOCCA students who went on to establish successful careers as jazz artists include pianist/singer Harry Connick Jr., bassist Reginald Veal, trumpeter Marlon Jordan, flutist Kent Jordan, and clarinetist and saxophonist Victor Goines, director of Juilliard's Institute for Jazz Studies. As Mr. Goines observes, "Mr. Marsalis has had a tremendous influence on the lives and careers of virtually every serious musician coming up through New Orleans—and many others throughout the world--for more than three generations. His generosity in sharing his musicianship, experience, wisdom, and advice with countless students and professionals at every level of musical development is unprecedented."

In 1986 Marsalis accepted a faculty position at Virginia Commonwealth University, and spent three years there before returning to his jubilant home city to become the first occupant of the endowed Coca-Cola Chair in Jazz Studies at the University of New Orleans. On the occasion of his retirement from the university in August 2001, Marsalis's sons Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo, and Jason all performed together with their father for the first time in the family's history. The event, which was taped and broadcast on PBS in February 2003, was so personally and musically rewarding to the family that it inspired a recent (spring 2003) East Coast tour billed as "Ellis Marsalis and Sons." The sold-out concerts have won rave reviews. When not touring, Marsalis performs at Snug Harbor in New Orleans on Friday nights.

Marsalis has been a frequent panelist for music programs of the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Orleans Arts Council's Mayoralty Forum, and has served as chairman of the Louisiana Music Commission and vice president of the International Association of Jazz Educators. He has received honorary doctorates from his alma mater, Dillard University, and Ball State University, and is the subject of a biography by D. Antoinette Handy published in 1999.

In recognition of his lifetime of achievement as an artist and educator, Ellis Marsalis will receive Juilliard's Honorary Doctor of Music degree on May 23.

—Lisa Robinson