For several mornings in a row last year, Grammy-winning jazz musician Branford Marsalis said he woke up trying to figure out the next phase of his long career. Then he heard a “little voice getting louder and louder” until its message revealed itself: “You have to go home.”
Home is New Orleans where, on Tuesday, Marsalis will be named the artistic director of the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, a position held by his father, Ellis Marsalis , who died in 2020 from complications of COVID-19. The ceremony will include dignitaries in the philanthropic world, such as Ford Foundation President Darren Walker.
The Marsalis family is legendary in New Orleans — Branford’s brother, Wynton Marsalis, is director of the Lincoln Center and a Grammy-winning trumpeter, Delfeayo Marsalis is an acclaimed trombonist who tours with the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, and Jason Marsalis is a prolific session musician as a drummer and vibraphonist.
MORE: Musicians honor the life of the legendary Ellis Marsalis Jr.