March 30, 2007

Quiet Man
Trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis steps out from brothers' shadows to lead quintet
By Richard Bammer, The Reporter.com

Scion of America's first family of jazz, Delfeayo Marsalis admits his name is far less known than his famous brothers, Wynton, a trumpeter and director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, and Branford, a saxophonist. Perhaps even less known than his father, Ellis, a talented pianist.

But this relative anonymity may be due in part to his axe of choice, the slide trombone, something of an oddball in the pantheon of musical instruments, producing tones by moving the slide in or out.

" The trombone is kind of a quiet instrument," Marsalis said during a telephone interview Monday from his New Orleans home. "Generally, it plays a more supportive role in the jazz band and I feel fortunate to kind of come out as a leader of a band. It's just the nature of the instrument.'

Marsalis - who, beginning Tuesday, performs with his backing quartet for five straight nights at the intimate Mondavi Center's Studio Theatre in Davis - further likened his lower profile in the jazz world to a polar opposite in the sports world, flashy superstar Los Angeles Laker guard Kobe Bryant.

" Certain positions (in the typical jazz band configuration) lend themselves to more of a headlining role (such as the trumpet, piano or saxophone)," he said. "So few trombonists are able to headline."

Marsalis, 41 and a New Orleans native, is touring behind his most recent release, 2006's "Minions Dominion" (on the Troubadour Jass imprint), a seven-tune disc of five originals and two standards, Duke Ellington's "Just Squeeze Me" and John M. Elliot's "Weaver of Dreams."

While not breaking any new ground musically, the album emphasizes jazz roots in the traditional jam session - "The jazzman's true academy," writer Ralph Ellison noted. This approach to the music can be heard on the tender ballad "If You Only Knew" or on the swinging title track. The solo sections on "Minions" - as were virtually all the tunes on the CD - were recorded in only one take. All of them feature the drumming of jazz legend Elvin Jones, who died in 2004, two years after the disc was recorded.

The disc, his third, comes after the 1996 release of "Musashi" (produced for King Records, a Japanese label) and the first, "Pontius Pilates Decision," on the RCA label.

Why the 10-year span between albums?

" A series of events," Marsalis said, adding that the RCA deal fizzled over artistic differences and he asked to be released from the contract. Mostly, the mega company wanted him to record with his famous brothers, capitalizing on the family name. He had previously spent several years performing with Jones in the drummer's band. Then, in 2002, he pursued and earned a master's degree in performance at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Ky.

In addition to producing albums for his brothers and countless others, he was also a sideman on albums for singer Ruth Brown, pianist Benny Green and fellow trombonist Wycliffe Gordon.

Jones remains a revered father figure to Marsalis, who said that the famed drummer taught him that the "most important element in jazz is that it's an expression of your life and your life experiences.'

" It's more than just scales and the technical aspects," he continued. "I think he was very frustrated with some of the younger players who could play anything up and down the horn. He said jazz was more than just an exhibition of scales and what not. He was so passionate and spiritual."

Additionally, some of the young flashy players, while competent musicians capable of "reading anything you put in front of them," have lost sense of the music's roots, he said. Jazz "came out of family and community experience, a community way of life."

When not performing or recording, Marsalis finds the time to teach. He leads two education programs in the Crescent City, as New Orleans is sometimes called. They include Swinging With Cool School for pre-schoolers (started last year) and The Uptown Music Theater, a musical theater program founded in 2000.

" It's not jazz," he said of the latter. "I'm an avid fan of literature. It connects musical theater with dancing and acting. Music is important - I like the idea of music being part of the curriculum."

Marsalis' home, in the Uptown section, survived 2005's Hurricane Katrina, but it devastated the ranks of longtime players who, unlike his brothers and other native son musicians who live elsewhere right now, have lived and worked in New Orleans all their lives.
" The majority of those guys are gone," he lamented. "Those are the meat and potatoes musicians. Those are the ones we sadly miss."

Marsalis' backing quartet includes Mark Shim, tenor saxophone; Victor "Red" Atkins, piano; David Pulphus, bass; and Jeff Fajardo, drums.

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