Jazz trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis will offer master-classes at Correia Middle School and Mission Bay High School, followed by a joint concert on Thursday, January 30. During his time at the schools, Marsalis will work on the concept of Jazz improvisation, feel, history, and advanced Jazz articulations. The concert will feature the students as well as Delfeayo Marsalis performing with professional internationally acclaimed musicians, featuring Mark Massey on keyboard, Glen Fisher on bass, and Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith on drums. This opportunity is the result of a collaboration between Correia Middle School band director Marc Dwyer and professional bass player Glen Fisher, founder and president of the First Friday Music Club. The two have partnered for many years to bring local and internationally renowned musicians and educators to work with music students. Glen Fisher believes that the exposure to accomplished Jazz musicians and educators like Delfeayo Marsalis can change a young musician’s life. The annual Jazz residency is supported by the First Friday Music Club, Inc. 501c3, through a major donation from the Ryan Family Charitable Foundation. Delfeayo Marsalis is one of the top trombonists, composers and producers in jazz today. Known for his “technical excellence, inventive mind and frequent touches of humor...” (Leonard Feather, Los Angeles Times), he is “...one of the best, most imaginative and musical of the trombonists of his generation.” (Philip Elwood, San Francisco Examiner.) In January 2011, Delfeayo and the Marsalis family (father Ellis and brothers Branford, Wynton, and Jason) earned the nation’s highest jazz honor – a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award.
Marsalis has long been involved as an educator. In 2004, he earned an MA in jazz performance at the University of Louisville and was conferred a doctorate by New England College in 2009. He lectured in schools in 1995 on behalf of the Dallas Opera and the Bravo cable network. Marsalis served as director of the Foundation for Artistic and Musical Excellence summer program in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (1998-2002), founded the Uptown Music Theatre in 2000, and implemented its Kidstown After School in three New Orleans grammar schools in 2009. He has composed over 80 songs that help introduce kids to jazz.
