Delivered on Jun 15th, 2009

Tribute to E

The Duke Ellington Jazz Festival presented my father Ellis Marsalis Jr. (we call him E) with a lifetime achievement award on Monday June 15, 2009 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The tribute concert culminated a week long celebration of Duke Ellington in our nation’s capital.

Earlier that day, my family participated in a jazz clinic for high school students from around the country. As it was set up by Wynton through Lincoln Center, Branford, Jason and I didn't say anything as it seemed like imposing. He said similar things that I tell students: learn from the recordings, the scales and changes are a guide, the melody is the key. On the way to the White House, Wynton prepped us on the format of the clinic and what we were supposed to do. But once we arrived and saw that it was for students who were actually familiar with jazz, he changed the game plan. It was a great time. Paquito D'Rivera jumped in and stated his peace.

On the White House website, they overdubbed some generic instrumental pop underneath Mrs. Obama's speech. It seems a bit sacrilegious, but what can ye do? I've sent it to Branford and Wynton, but they've yet to respond. We took a couple of photos with her, quite the elegant one. I told Sasha and Malia Obama that my daughter Jazmine would be firing spitballs at them during the concert. They weren't amused and Jazmine didn't like it. Oh well.

Branford's manager was upset at my lack of political savvy in suggesting we shouldn't serve as a back-up band for Harry Connick, so she barred the videotaping. That was more of a drag than i thought initially. When we played the 2nd line for an encore, Harry suggested we walk it through the audience and the people were on their feet for 5 minutes clapping and dancing. Rock concert energy. New Orleans is a special place. No matter how high brow the music, the musicians never lose that party vibration. That's a big part of what made Louis Armstrong great.

We talked about my mother and her feminism, intellect, wit and sense of humor. She dumped a plate of spaghetti on Wynton's head after he refused to eat it and said, "Every king deserves a crown!" My family is a trip. The music was good, but the concert was great! A great "feel-good" moment in history for those who attended. Reminded me of the tennis tournament final where I came back from a set and 5-1 down to win 6-0 in the 3rd. But not as great as that, clearly!

At my suggestion, my brother Ellis read a poem for our dad. There was some concern that because he is not an actor his delivery would be too dry for the audience. He got a standing ovation. Ellis and I were really close growing up. He received the expresso shot of pigmentation at birth and the last 3 of us are all light skinneded! Wynton never got over seeing Ellis breastfeeding. Inspiration can come from anywhere, I suppose. Here's what Ellis wrote:

The man and the ocean

Inside the theory of the big bang
Amidst the high energy of the source of all things
are these two relatives
special and general
as far as relatives go
this is about the special ones
the ones that comprise the mixture
of mandatory and magic

as the necessary collisions and expansions
produce billions of elements
2 constitute matter
one - the bangs keen sense of balance
the other that bright shining light
this one end - of special

it is difficult to resist the litany of
paternal anecdotes
dads and football, dads and fishing
and the ever so popular, if sometimes exaggerated
dads and the ass-whipping as metaphor for foolish youth

to be sure this is ours as well - but for only a sliver
more mysterious than mathematical
or the essence of playing the dealt hand to the highest order possible

nothing forced, all steady as she goes
and his matter
some unexpected concoction of African, west and east
to be the heart of that light
not the presence of all matter
but the presence of all that matters

what a more apt metaphor for this life
than the journey toward this music,
not mythically ideal
but soup-stained and pock-marked all the way in

what could it be but this music
that becomes not the backdrop for who he has been
but the edifice that introduced us boys to the man
and then the world

once the all encompassing sun of our youth - diminishes - slowly
direction replaces fear
but always seen and not foreseen
there floating, bobbing up and down
not the right answer, not the direct road
but the best thing he could have been
a beacon, that flashing light - being and showing all at once

not the individual intent of some grand plan
but the individual intent of the present moment
devoid of any measurable grandiosity
the simple discipline of the task at hand

and for each of us when we’ve faced the dark
becoming our own lights our own beacons

sure of some things
unsure of others
we look back
before white dwarf

seeing that bobbing light
not to ask “is that you pop”
but to pay close attention
and to know

although the line not straight

TRUE

wishing that in our best imitation of that light
that flashing light
that beacon

we would be so much the better
to have nearly

as much grace


by Ellis Marsalis III



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