Multi-instrumentalist Jason Marsalis hails from New Orleans' venerable first family of jazz. The son of Ellis and Dolores Marsalis, his older brothers are storied musicians Branford, Wynton, Ellis III, Delfeayo, and Mboya. At age 5, he started on the violin with the Suzuki teaching method while at age 6 he started playing the drums. When he was 12, Jason decided to quit playing violin and focus more on percussion. In a few short years, he would appear on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” while making his recording debut was on Delfeayo’s album “Pontius Pilate’s Decision”. This occurred while attending the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), an arts high school in New Orleans, LA. As a senior in high school, he would join pianist Marcus Roberts’ trio and the day after high school graduation, would record the album “Portraits in Blue featuring George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” for jazz band and orchestra. Marsalis would go on and record several albums with Roberts including collaboration with conductor Seiji Ozawa and the Berlin Philharmonic.

In 1998, Marsalis would record his debut album as a leader, “Year of the Drummer” while co-leading a popular band in New Orleans, “Los Hombres Calientes”. He would go on to record or perform with a who’s who of musicians such as Joe Henderson, Lionel Hampton, Curtis Fuller, John Ellis, John Scofield, Bruce Hornsby, and Snarky Puppy to name a few. A few years later Marsalis turned his attention to the vibraphone and would record “In a World of Mallets”, his first full album on the vibraphone. Meanwhile, Marsalis started teaching music as an adjunct University of New Orleans, the New School, and teaching combos at NOCCA. He’s also taught yearly workshops at Florida State University with Marcus Roberts and the Swing Central program at the Savannah Music Festival. Since then, he has taught at Montclair State University and University of Central Florida.