Marcus Roberts | |
|---|---|
 Roberts at the Festival de Jazz de Vitoria, 2010 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Marthaniel Roberts |
| Born | August 7, 1963 Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, swing, classical |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, arranger |
| Instrument(s) | Piano |
| Years active | 1980s–present |
| Labels | Novus, Columbia, J-Master |
| Website | www |
Marthaniel "Marcus" Roberts (born August 7, 1963) [1] is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and teacher.
Roberts was born in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. [1] His mother was a gospel singer who had gone blind as a teenager, and his father was a longshoreman. [2] Blind since age five due to glaucoma and cataracts, [3] Roberts started learning the piano at age five by picking out notes on the instrument at his church until his parents bought a piano when he was eight. [2] He attended the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, Florida, [4] the alma mater of Ray Charles. Roberts began teaching himself piano at an early age, having his first lesson at age 12, and then studying with Leonidas Lipovetsky while attending Florida State University.
In the 1980s, Roberts replaced pianist Kenny Kirkland in Wynton Marsalis's band. Like Marsalis's, his music is rooted in the traditional jazz of the past. His style has been influenced more by Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller than McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans, with an emphasis on ragtime and stride piano rather than bebop. His album New Orleans Meets Harlem, Vol. 1 (2009) covers music by Scott Joplin, Duke Ellington, Morton, and Waller. [1]
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Savannah Music Festival commissioned Roberts's first piano concerto, Spirit of the Blues: Piano Concerto in C Minor. He has performed as a soloist in symphony orchestras with Marin Alsop (1992) and Seiji Ozawa. He returned to Japan in September 2014 to share the stage with Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra.
In 2012, Roberts founded the band The Modern Jazz Generation, which released its first album in October 2014. It has 12 musicians ranging in age from early 20s to 50s. He served as associate artistic director for the Savannah Music Festival as well as the director of the annual Swing Central high school band competition. He is on the faculty at Florida State University.
In 2014, Roberts was profiled on the television show 60 Minutes. [5] [6]
Roberts received an honorary doctorate from Brigham Young University (BYU) for the 2021 commencement on April 22. BYU conferred upon Roberts the degree of Doctor of Civic Engagement Through Music, honoris causa, for his outstanding life and contributions to society and to the world. In his address, Roberts said: "We need to take time to really see each person, especially those who don't look or act like us, because if we hold onto and build upon that thread that binds us together, our ties will become stronger, we'll develop more of a sense of communion and trust with each other". As part of his address, Roberts performed a special piano musical arrangement of the gospel hymn "Just a Closer Walk with Thee". The degree conferral and address were video-recorded the previous weekend in Boston before being shown at BYU's commencement. [7]
Bard College appointed Roberts distinguished visiting professor of music for the 2020–21 academic year. [8]
With Wynton Marsalis
| With others
|
Wynton Learson Marsalis is an American trumpeter, composer, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promoting classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards, and his oratorio Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Marsalis is the only musician to have won a Grammy Award in both jazz and classical categories in the same year.
Seiji Ozawa is a Japanese conductor known for his advocacy of modern composers and for his work with the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he served as music director for 29 years. He is the recipient of numerous international awards.
Concerto in F is a composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and orchestra which is closer in form to a traditional concerto than his earlier jazz-influenced Rhapsody in Blue. It was written in 1925 on a commission from the conductor and director Walter Damrosch. It is just over half an hour long.
Jason Marsalis is an American jazz drummer, vibraphone player, composer, producer, band leader, and member of the Marsalis family of musicians. He is the youngest son of Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis and the late Ellis Marsalis, Jr.
Ellis Louis Marsalis Jr. was an American jazz pianist and educator. Active since the late 1940s, Marsalis came to greater attention in the 1980s and 1990s as the patriarch of the musical Marsalis family, when sons Branford and Wynton became popular jazz musicians.
Delfeayo Marsalis is an American jazz trombonist, record producer and educator.
Rodney Whitaker is an American jazz double bass player and educator.
Wycliffe A. Gordon is an American jazz trombonist, arranger, composer, band leader, and music educator at the collegiate-conservatory level. Gordon also sings and plays didgeridoo, trumpet, soprano trombone, tuba, and piano. His nickname is "Pinecone".
Neo-bop refers to a style of jazz that gained popularity in the 1980s among musicians who found greater aesthetic affinity for acoustically based, swinging, melodic forms of jazz than for free jazz and jazz fusion that had gained prominence in the 1960s and 1970s. Neo-bop is distinct from previous bop music due to the influence of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who popularized the genre as an artistic and academic endeavor opposed to the countercultural developments of the beat generation.
Doug Wamble is an American jazz guitarist and vocalist from Tennessee.
Victor Louis Goines is a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who has served as president and chief executive officer of Jazz St. Louis since September 2022. From 2000 to 2007, he was director of the jazz program at Juilliard.
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque. From 1992 to 1995 he led the Tonight Show Band.
This is the discography of jazz musician and composer Wynton Marsalis.
Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony Orchestra is an avant-garde musical composition written by William Russo in 1968. It combines classical music played by an orchestra with blues played by a four-piece band.
Marsalis Standard Time, Vol. 1 is an album by jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis that was released in 1987. It won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group in 1988.
Live at Blues Alley is a double live album by the Wynton Marsalis Quartet, recorded at Blues Alley in December 1986 and released through Columbia Records in 1987. The quartet included trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, bassist Robert Hurst, pianist Marcus Roberts and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts. The album was produced by Steven Epstein; George Butler served as executive producer.
Uptown Ruler: Soul Gestures in Southern Blue, Vol. 2 is an album by Wynton Marsalis that was released in 1991. It is part two of the three-part blues cycle recorded by Marsalis and his quintet.
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is an American big band and jazz orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis. The Orchestra is part of Jazz at Lincoln Center, a performing arts organization in New York City.
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F is an album by Marcus Roberts, his trio and the Saito Kinen Orchestra under the direction of Seiji Ozawa, recorded live at the Saito Kinen Festival in 2005. It features Roberts' arrangement of Gershwin's concerto. This was Roberts' second time working with Ozawa on a live recording, A Gershwin Night being the first. The album saw a limited release in Japan.
Robert Darrin Stewart is an American saxophonist. He recorded several albums under his own name during the period 1994–2006. He has also recorded as a sideman, including on trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' Blood on the Fields. Stewart went on multiple national and world tours during his 30-year career as a performer, both under his own name and with the Marsalis band.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
