NEW ORLEANS ― The patriarch of the first family of New Orleans jazz, Ellis Marsalis, will be honored along with his four sons as Jazz Masters by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The award is the nation’s highest honor for jazz artists.
It is the first time in the award’s 29-year history it will be presented to a group. Three other artists also will be honored at a ceremony in January at New York's Lincoln Center.
Pianist Ellis Marsalis, the former director of the Jazz Studies program at the University of New Orleans and current director emeritus of the jazz program at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, will be honored along with his four sons: Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason, all of whom have earned national and international reputations as musicians in a wide range of styles.
“The Marsalis family, together and individually, has been enormously influential in the world of jazz as performers, composers, conductors, educators, and advocates,” reads a statement from the NEA.
Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner Wynton Marsalis is currently artistic director for the nationally-known program Jazz at Lincoln Center, which will be the site of the January 2011 awards ceremony.
The other NEA Jazz Masters are flutist Hubert Laws; David Liebman, a saxophonist, flutist and composer; composer Johnny Mandel and producer/author Orrin Keepnews.
