Ellis Marsalis Jr. is a legend and music icon in the genre jazz and beyond, and it’s being reported that he passed away due to COVID-19 complications.
Musicians from all backgrounds, worldwide, recognize the last name “Marsalis.” Ellis Marsalis Jr. was an accomplished jazz pianist and musician who had four sons who followed in his footsteps—Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo and Jason—albeit, they chose varying instruments their own liking. The Marsalises have toured the world, won awards, and have added their touches to the history music, and now they mourn the death their patriarch.
Variety reports that 85-year-old New Orleans legend Ellis Marsalis Jr. passed away from complications connected to his COVID-19 diagnosis. His son Brandford Marsalis issued a statement about his father’s passing. “My dad was a giant a musician and teacher, but an even greater father. He poured everything he had into making us the best what we could be,” Brandford said. “And to quote my friend and Harvard Law pressor David Wilkins, who just sent me the following text, ‘We can all marvel at the sheer audacity a man who believed he could teach his black boys to be excellent in a world that denied that very possibility, and then watch them go on to redefine what excellence means for all time.'”
The mayor New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, tweeted a tribute to the late music icon. “Ellis Marsalis was a legend. He was the prototype what we mean when we talk about New Orleans jazz. The love and the prayers all our people go out to his family, and to all those whose lives he touched,” she wrote. “Ellis Marsalis was an icon — and words aren’t sufficient to describe the art, the joy & the wonder he showed the world. May we wrap his family in our love & our gratitude, & may we honor his memory by coming together in spirit— even as the outbreak keeps us apart, for a time.” We send our condolences to the Marsalis family.