Jason Marsalis

[mrjazzman]

Saw Jason Marsalis's tribute to Lionel Hampton last week at Yoshi's Oakland. I have a two word critique.  Lackluster and bland. I'd bet he's the youngest of the brothers because his personality is kind of goofy/silly.  Gives Cannonball Adderely sermons inbetween songs. Milt Jackson tribute would've been better imho.

[Rabshakeh]

Is Jason the one who keeps flying the New Orleans flag in particular? 

I think he runs with a clique of impressively bland musicians. Those Los Hombres Calientes records might as well be written by AI. 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I've never seen Jason as a leader. I think he was the drummer for his dad's last tour and I saw him then. He seemed like a decent drummer. I've seen better and I've seen worse. From his discography, it looks like he's been touring with the Lionel Hampton Big Band for a few years now. Is that what you saw? I've never seen him play vibes so I can't comment on that.

[bertrand]

Sounds boring, but I find everything I have heard by the Marsalis clan boring.

 

[kh1958]

Au contraire, Jason is an excellent vibes player, a fine drummer, and plays in his groups with quality New Orleans musicians like Oscar Rossignoli, Derek Douget and Ashlin Parker, none of whom are boring. Jason is not "goofy"; he is scholarly and personable.

 

 

Here's a good example of Jason Marsalis--he and Warren Wolf alternate on vibes in this set, with Oscar Rossignoli on piano.:

https://www.munck-music.com/collections/2023-new-orleans-jazz-heritage-festival/products/jason-marsalis-with-warren-wolf-live-at-2023-new-orleans-jazz-heritage-festival

 

[mrjazzman]

On 5/16/2025 at 6:03 AM, bertrand said:

Sounds boring, but I find everything I have heard by the Marsalis clan boring.

 

Wow, you said it not me, but upon thought, I have to agree

On 5/16/2025 at 6:30 AM, kh1958 said:

Au contraire, Jason is an excellent vibes player, a fine drummer, and plays in his groups with quality New Orleans musicians like Oscar Rossignoli, Derek Douget and Ashlin Parker, none of whom are boring. Jason is not "goofy"; he is scholarly and personable.

 

 

Here's a good example of Jason Marsalis--he and Warren Wolf alternate on vibes in this set, with Oscar Rossignoli on piano.:

https://www.munck-music.com/collections/2023-new-orleans-jazz-heritage-festival/products/jason-marsalis-with-warren-wolf-live-at-2023-new-orleans-jazz-heritage-festival

 

You have your ears and I have mine. I disagree with your assesment. 

[mikeweil]

Jason Marsalis' drumming in the Marcus Roberts Trio was oustanding!

And Los Hombres Calientes was a cooperative band, so blame Bill Summers and Irwin Mayfiled, too. That said, I love the band. Perfect fusion of a number of styles in typical New Orleans fashiom.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

This is such a divisive topic... I would rather we don't have to weather another one of these threads. They suck. He sucks. They're great. He's great. This place is so much more enjoyable when this particular topic doesn't crop up.

It's almost as bad as politics or religion. Maybe we can have Jim A modify the rules to include a ban on Marsalis threads?

[Peter Friedman]

Come on Kevin, there is nothing wrong with people expressing their opinions on a musicians live performance or recording. 

I don't recall and lengthy thread discussing Jason Marsalis. 

Edited 17 hours ago by Peter Friedman

[Kevin Bresnahan]

7 hours ago, Peter Friedman said:

Come on Kevin, there is nothing wrong with people expressing their opinions on a musicians live performance or recording. 

I don't recall and lengthy thread discussing Jason Marsalis. 

I have no problem discussing specific artists, except when it comes to Wynton Marsalis, which is where this thread is headed when someone posts:

On 5/16/2025 at 9:03 AM, bertrand said:

Sounds boring, but I find everything I have heard by the Marsalis clan boring.

and it's followed up with:

23 hours ago, mrjazzman said:

Wow, you said it not me, but upon thought, I have to agree

This looks like the beginning of a "Wynton Marsalis sucks" sidebar, which will probably digress into a all-out food fight.

As someone who enjoys some of Wynton's musical output and a lot of Branford's, I hate when these Marsalis-bashing threads bust out here.

[JSngry]

On 5/16/2025 at 8:03 AM, bertrand said:

Sounds boring, but I find everything I have heard by the Marsalis clan boring.

 

I like Ellis' duet record with Eddie Harris.

So there's that 

[jazzbo]

I like a LOT of the Marsalis family recordings. They're jazz. 

Edited 9 hours ago by jazzbo

[Kevin Bresnahan]

14 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I like Ellis' duet record with Eddie Harris.

So there's that 

I have several of Ellis' recordings but not that one. His last one, initially only available via pledgemusic, is pretty good.

As is his trio recording "Heart of Gold" & his solo piano date, "Piano in E".

[JSngry]

Jazz can be boring. It often is!

No different than anything else.

1 minute ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

I have several of Ellis' recordings but not that one. His last one, initially only available via pledgemusic, is pretty good.

As is his trio recording "Heart of Gold" & his solo piano date, "Piano in E".

Sure, ok. But that duet album with Harris is actually interesting. Eddie is throwing curves and Ellis is seeing them.

And it gets out a few times as well. Unexpected treat!

[Rabshakeh]

I have no particular objection to Wynton or Branford. Wynton has in my view done a handful of very good records, some very poor longer compositions, and he now seems to have matured into a musician with stronger Louis Armstrong influence whose playing I find striking. Branford has a solid back catalogue of decent records and leaving that aside, has done a major service in elevating jazz' standing with the hip hop crowd, which is still bearing fruit.

But I have always found the clique of younger New Orleans-based jazz musicians nurtured by Ellis, among whom is Jason Marsalis, to be a particular disappointment. To my ears, their output is solid but very tepidly by the book retro stuff. I have no problem whatsoever with retro bop etc., but I find that their work lacks freshness and excitement. And it always comes wrapped up in this package of New Orleans heritage, references to Mardi Gras and gumbo, and a certain sense of superiority, which I find to be undeserved given their output.