Review: Marsalis Family Music Redeems

It is very rare for all the Marsalis family to gather in one place, but last year, just before Father’s Day, they all got together to honor the legendary Ellis Marsalis. Ellis was to receive the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival’s lifetime achievement award and to play music with his sons.

For the jazz lover, the resulting record is a must. With Branford on saxophone, Wynton on trumpet, Delfeayo on trombone, Jason on drums, Ellis III reciting a poem written for his father and guest appearances by Dr. Billy Taylor and Harry Connick Jr., the familial atmosphere is captured—and one gets a real sense of the New Orleans history running through the veins of these talented musicians. Performed are standards like “Donna Lee” and tunes like “Monkey Puzzle,” a song the brothers grew up playing together under the direction of their father.

All proceeds from this album go straight to funding for the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, an educational and performance center conceived in 2005 by Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr. In partnership with the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity, the center helps support the displaced musicians still affected by Hurricane Katrina. A great album for a great cause. marsalismusic.com

Essential tracks: “Monkey Puzzle,” “At the House, In Da Pocket”

Recommended if you like: Joshua Redman, Righteous Buddha, Zatarain’s