Jazz History

Reportedly, jazz giant (and father of numerous similarly jazz-gigantic progeny) Ellis Marsalis passed away yesterday, taken by the COVID-19 virus.

I will confess that the one and only time I ever saw him in person, I … um … kinda didn’t know how big a deal it was.

He visited the Jazz History class I was taking as a sophomore at UMass-Amherst. Professor Jeff Holmes introduced him; we clapped loudly — because we figured that Professor Holmes knew the quality people to bring in. After all, Max Roach had been a guest speaker/performer before that, so, ya know.

Mr. Marsalis spent some of the session telling tales of New Orleans jazz in that wonderful Bayou drawl … and spent most of it making the Bezanson Hall piano tell its own tales.

That was one of the fastest hours I ever spent in a class. At the end of it, we stood and clapped loudly and didn’t stop for a while.

Even though clearly, Wynton, Branford, and the rest of the Marsalis clan don’t follow me on any social media platform (!!!) … my thoughts are with them today. And with a world that will have to make do with benefiting from their father’s greatness on recordings only.

But first, let me stand and clap loudly for a while.