Delfeayo Ferdinand Marsalis (said "del-fee-oh"; born July 28, 1965) is an American jazz musician who plays the trombone, a person who makes music recordings, and a teacher.

Life and career

Delfeayo Marsalis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Dolores (born Ferdinand) and Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr., who was a pianist and music professor. He is the grandson of Ellis Marsalis, Sr., and the brother of Wynton Marsalis, a trumpeter; Branford Marsalis, a saxophonist; and Jason Marsalis, a drummer. Delfeayo also has two brothers who are not musicians: Ellis Marsalis III, born in 1964, is a poet, photographer, and computer networking specialist living in Baltimore. The other brother, Mboya Kenyatta, born in 1970, has autism and inspired Delfeayo to create the New Orleans-based Uptown Music Theatre (UMT). Founded in 2000, UMT has trained over 300 young people and produced eight original musicals focused on the goal of "community unity."

Delfeayo has released eight albums of his own music and is known for producing recordings of acoustic jazz. Along with Patrick Smith, an engineer for The Tonight Show, Delfeayo helped change how jazz was recorded by promoting the use of acoustic sounds instead of rock and roll production methods. A phrase he helped create—"To obtain more wood sound from the bass, this album recorded without usage of the dreaded bass direct"—first appeared on his brother Branford’s album Renaissance (Columbia, 1987). This sentence became a standard description for the sound quality of many acoustic jazz recordings since the late 1980s. Delfeayo graduated from Berklee College of Music and earned a master’s degree in jazz performance from the University of Louisville in 2004.

Discography

• Pontius Pilate's Decision (Novus, 1992)
• Musashi (Evidence, 1996)
• Minions Dominion (Troubadour Jass, 2006)
• Sweet Thunder: Duke and Shak (Troubadour Jass, 2011)
• The Last Southern Gentlemen (Troubadour Jass, 2014)
• Make America Great Again (Troubadour Jass, 2016)
• Kalamazoo (Troubadour Jass, 2017)
• Jazz Party (Troubadour Jass, 2020)

With Branford Marsalis:
• 1992 I Heard You Twice the First Time
• 1994 Buckshot LeFonque
• 1997 Music Evolution
• 2003 Romare Bearden Revealed

• 1993 It Don't Mean a Thing, Elvin Jones (Enja)
• 1994 The Place To Be, Benny Green (Blue Note)
• 1994 Joe Cool's Blues, Ellis Marsalis / Wynton Marsalis
• 1996 Hold on Tight, Kermit Ruffins
• 1997 Jazzfest, Elvin Jones
• 1997 R+B = Ruth Brown, Ruth Brown
• 1998 Crackerjack, Clutch
• 1999 Citizen Tain, Jeff "Tain" Watts
• 2000 Spirits of Congo Square, Donald Harrison
• 2000 The Search, Wycliffe Gordon
• 2003 The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration, Marsalis Family
• 2006 Concrete Jungle: The Music of Bob Marley, Monty Alexander
• 2006 Standards Only, Wycliffe Gordon
• 2009 Ms. B's Blues, Ruth Brown
• 2010 Music Redeems, Marsalis Family
• 2016 Trilogy, Ana Popović

Filmography

• Sound of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story (2014)
• Soundtrack to The Courage of Her Convictions (a documentary about Maureen Kelleher, an activist and artist) (2016)