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About this clip:

Vibraphonist and NEA Jazz Master Jason Marsalis performs the 1941 Benny Goodman, James Mundy, and Charlie Christian classic “Air Mail Special” with his Vibes Quartet during his concert on January 27, 2023 as part of the 2022-23 Season, broadcast on Fridays Live.

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About the concert:

Jason Marsalis is the youngest member of the illustrious Marsalis clan, but his accomplishments would make fitting laurels for an octogenarian. A drummer who established his career on the red-hot New Orleans jazz scene, he spent more than a decade in the Marcus Roberts Trio, one of jazz’s most accomplished and stylistically encompassing ensembles, and co-founded the Afro-Caribbean jazz combo Los Hombres Calientes with percussionist Bill Summers and trumpeter Irvin Mayfield. He is a savvy producer and prolific composer as well, performing internationally with conductor Seiji Ozawa for interpretations of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Concerto in F.” In recent years he’s concentrated on the vibraphone, launching the beautifully calibrated Vibes Quartet, whose 2020 Basin Street release Live focuses on Marsalis’s finely wrought originals, which often employ tricky time signatures and intricately lapidary textures. While the quartet plays with the dynamic control and precision of a chamber ensemble, the band’s bluesy authority and improvisational firepower leave no doubt why Marsalis was named an NEA Jazz Master along with his father Ellis and his brothers Branford, Wynton, and Delfeayo. This version of Marsalis’ Vibes Quartet features Bay Area jazz greats Adam Shulman on piano, David Ewell on bass, and Jaz Sawyer on drums.

PERSONNEL:

Jason Marsalis: vibraphone
Adam Shulman: piano
David Ewell: bass
Jaz Sawyer: drums

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