The legendary pianist and teacher Ellis Marsalis is coming to town this weekend. He’ll be helping the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culturecelebrate an important milestone: their 10th anniversary. He’ll be playing a concert at a gala at the Museum, on President Street in Baltimore, on Saturday night.
The influence of Ellis Marsalis on the history of American Jazz is unparalleled. He is the patriarch of America’s first family of jazz, which includes his sons Wynton and Branford, and he has taught many other jazz musicians in his long career as an educator, including the pianist Harry Connick, Jr. and the trumpet player Terrance Blanchard. In 2011, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Mr. Marsalis and his family a Jazz Masters designation, the first time a group had ever been given that award by the NEA. Marsalis joins Tom on the phone from New Orleans.
The current special exhibition at the Lewis Museum features the work of Ruth Starr Rose. It’s called Revelations of African American Life in Maryland and the World. It just opened last month, and it will be there until April.
