Jason Ignatius Marsalis was born on March 4, 1977. He is an American jazz drummer, plays the vibraphone, composes music, produces recordings, leads a band, and is part of the Marsalis family of musicians. He is the youngest son of Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis and the late Ellis Marsalis, Jr.

Musical career

Jason Marsalis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Dolores (née Ferdinand) and Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr., a pianist and music teacher. His brothers include Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis III (born in 1964), Delfeayo Marsalis, and Mboya Kenyatta (born in 1971). Branford, Wynton, and Delfeayo are also jazz musicians.

At age 6, Marsalis began studying with James Black, a famous New Orleans drummer. As a teenager, he made his first recording on Delfeayo Marsalis’s 1992 album, Pontius Pilate’s Decision.

Marsalis graduated from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and studied percussion at Loyola University New Orleans. He worked as a supporting musician in jazz, funk, and jazz fusion groups (Neslort and Snarky Puppy); a Brazilian percussion group (Casa Samba); and played Celtic music with Beth Patterson. He introduced percussionist Bill Summers to trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, and together they formed Los Hombres Calientes. Marsalis has also performed with John Ellis, Dr. Michael White, and members of the Marsalis family. He regularly performs at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival as a leader and supporting musician.

Marsalis has had a long professional career and has collaborated with pianist Marcus Roberts. In 1994, at age 17, he toured as a member of the Marcus Roberts Trio, performing songs from Roberts’ Gershwin for Lovers. In 2022, he continues performing with Marcus Roberts as part of the trio and Roberts’ Modern Jazz Generation. During a program of Duke Ellington songs at Carnegie Hall with Marcus Roberts, bassist Rodney Jordan, vocalist Catherine Russell, and the American Symphony Orchestra, critic Seth Colter Walls wrote, “The drumming by Marsalis was likewise individual in character, particularly during Three Black Kings. (At one point, he made a simple-sounding pattern progressively complex in its syncopations, until he stirred the crowd to applause.)”

At age 21, Marsalis released his first record as a leader, The Year of the Drummer. “On this impressive debut, his quintet puts together a highly coordinated spin on blues motifs and Caribbean figures. The music is vivacious as it makes its move; all sorts of fresh ideas concerning tempo fill the air.”

Los Angeles Times writer Don Heckman reviewed Marsalis’s second record, the 2000 release Music in Motion, and described it as “impressive,” “the opportunity to display his technique in everything from brushwork and hard-driving jazz to offbeat meters and Brazilian rhythms…with ease,” and “purposeful, intelligent drumming.” The record’s cover photograph shows Jason standing on the tracks of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad along Leake Avenue in New Orleans.

In 2009, Marsalis released his first album as a leader on vibraphone, Music Update. The album received 4.5 out of 5 stars in DownBeat magazine. Writing in The New York Times, critic Ben Ratliff said that Marsalis was “an excellent musician trying out something risky without embarrassment.”

In 2013, Marsalis released his second vibraphone record, In a World of Mallets, as the Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet. The quartet included Austin Johnson (piano), Will Goble (bass), and Dave Potter (drums), and each contributed one song to the record. Most of the other songs were composed by Marsalis. Marsalis plays marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells, vibraphone, and xylophone. The record peaked at #1 in JazzWeek’s chart. In a review by Britt Robson in JazzTimes—“In a World of Mallets highlights the growth of Jason Marsalis as a full-fledged vibraphonist” and “…captures the guileless mischief and playful impulsiveness of Marsalis’ personality, and inspires him into a spirited yet still multifaceted performance.” In the liner notes, Marsalis writes, “a debt of gratitude is owed to the original members of the percussion ensemble M’Boom.” He dedicates one of his songs, Blues Can Be Abstract, Too, to “all musicians and music students who believe that blues is a primitive old form in which no modern music can be explored.”

Drummers Marsalis, Herlin Riley, and Shannon Powell perform together as The New Orleans Groovemasters. During a 2020 performance at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in New Orleans, Marsalis’s father, Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr., joined for three songs with the Groovemasters. Herlin Riley commented about the performance in International Musician, “Ellis Marsalis passed away on April 1st [2020] from the coronavirus. In hindsight, that March 3 [2020] performance was a special moment at the close of his life and career. He played with his longtime friend (Germaine Bazzle), his youngest son, and in the venue that bears his name and was built in his honor.”

The Jason Marsalis Signature Series Vibe Mallets are the first mallets Marimba One designed specifically for the vibraphone. Marsalis is a Marimba One artist and plays the One Vibe.

Film

On June 29, 2003, Seiji Ozawa conducted the Berlin Philharmonic with the Marcus Roberts Trio at the Waldbühne in Berlin. They performed music by George Gershwin and one piece each by Marcus Roberts and Paul Lincke. EuroArts released the concert on Blu-Ray and DVD in 2021 under the title Ozawa: A Gershwin Night – Waldbühne Berlin. The video includes a 19-minute documentary titled They Got Rhythm, which explains the origins of the performance. It features videos of rehearsals and interviews with Marsalis, Seiji Ozawa, Marcus Roberts, and bassist Roland Guerin.

Marsalis is one of the artists in Tradition is a Temple: The Modern Masters of New Orleans, a 2013 documentary film about New Orleans.

In 2022, Music Pictures: New Orleans had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. After the premiere, Marsalis performed for the audience. The documentary focuses on elder and master musicians of New Orleans, including Marsalis’s father, Ellis Marsalis, Jr. It includes videos of Marsalis and his father recording music and footage of one of his father’s last live performances at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, where Marsalis was performing.

One story in the 2023 Grammy award-winning film Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story features Ellis Marsalis playing with his sons Jason, Branford, Wynton, and Delfeayo during the Jazz Test at the 2019 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. At the time, Ellis was 84 years old. This may have been the last time the Marsalis family musicians performed together publicly. Ellis died less than one year later. All five Marsalis musicians were interviewed, and they shared short stories about Jazz Fest, including Jason’s memory of meeting Miles Davis when he was eight years old.

Awards and honors

In 2011, Marsalis, his brothers Branford, Wynton, and Delfeayo, and their father Ellis were honored as NEA Jazz Masters.

Selected discography

• Music for Meditation and Relaxation, Vol. 2 (self-released, 2023)
• Music for Meditation and Relaxation, Vol. 1 (self-released, 2022)
• Jason Marsalis Live (Basin Street, 2020)
• Jason Marsalis & The 21st Century Trad Band – Melody Reimagined: Book 1 (Basin Street, 2017)
• Heirs Of The Crescent City (ELM Records, 2016)
• Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet – The 21st Century Trad Band (Basin Street, 2014)
• Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet – In a World of Mallets (Basin Street, 2013)
• Music Update (ELM Records, 2009)
• Music in Motion (Basin Street, 2000)
• The Year of the Drummer (Basin Street, 1998)

• Los Hombres Calientes – Vol. 2 (Basin Street, 2000)
• Los Hombres Calientes – Los Hombres Calientes (Basin Street, 1998)

• John Ellis & Double Wide – Fireball (Sunnyside Records, 2026)
• Trumpet Mafia – Tell Me (self-released single, 2025)
• Funkwrench Blues – Mischief in the Musitorium (Need to Know Music, 2025), featured on track 6, Funk-ish
• Trumpet Mafia – Dippy ft. Nicholas Payton, Wendell Brunious, Leroy Jones (self-released single, 2024)
• Mahmoud Chouki – Caravan — From Marrakech to New Orleans (New Orleans Jazz Museum/Gallatin Street Records, 2024), featured on track 2, Angelica
• John Ellis Quartet – Bizet: Carmen in Jazz (Blue Room Music, 2023)
• Judith Owen – Winter Wonderland (Holiday Edition) (Twanky Records, 2023)
• Christian Fabian Trio – Hip To The Skip (feat. Jason Marsalis & Matt King) (Spice Rack Records, 2023)
• Andy Page Quartet – Mobius (self-released, 2023)
• Patrick S. Noonan – Beat Nouveau (Wild Orchard Record Company, 2022)
• Outer Park – Blood from an Orange (Wild Orchard Record Company, 2022)
• Judith Owen – Come On and Get It (Twanky Records, 2022), vibraphone on track 9
• Daniel Hope – America (Deutsche Grammophon, 2022), drummer on tracks 1–5, Gershwin Song Suite with Marcus Roberts Trio
• Outer Park – Whole Lotta Orange (Wild Orchard Record Company, 2021)
• Ellis Marsalis with Jason Marsalis – For All We Know (part of The New Orleans Collection, Newvelle Records, 2020)
• Masakowski Family – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (self-released, 2020)
• John Ellis – All Things Bright (2020)
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra featuring Wynton Marsalis – A Swingin’ Sesame Street Celebration (Blue Engine Records, 2020), substitute orchestra member
• Lionel Hampton Big Band featuring Jason Marsalis – Live at Rossmoor (ALFi Records, 2019)
• Outer Park – 1968 (slight return) (Wild Orchard Record Company, 2019)
• Norbert Susemihl's Joyful Gumbo – Featuring Chloe Feoranzo & Jason Marsalis (Sumi Records, 2018)
• Live at Little Gem Saloon: Basin Street Records celebrates 20 years (Basin Street Records, 2018)
• Kermit Ruffins & Irvin Mayfield – A Beautiful Celebration (Basin Street Records, 2017), featured on track 4
• Jon Batiste – Christmas with Jon Batiste (Naht Jona, 2016), drummer on track 4
• Fredrik Kronkvist – Monk Vibes (Connective Records, 2015)
• Ellis Marsalis Trio – On the Second Occasion (ELM Records, 2014)
• The Native Jazz Quartet – Stories (self-released, 2013)
• Ellis Marsalis Trio – On the First Occasion (ELM Records, 2013)
• New Orleans Brass Revue – A tribute to Hoagy (Boqueria Records, 2013)
• Bela Fleck and the Marcus Roberts Trio – Across the Imaginary Divide (Rounder, 2012)
• Norbert Susemihl – Night on Frenchmen Street (Sumi Records, 2012)
• Ellis Marsalis – A New Orleans Christmas Carol (ELM Records, 2011)
• John Ellis & Double-Wide – Puppet Mischief (2010)
• The Marsalis Family – Music Redeems (Marsalis Music, 2010), whistle, vibraphone, drums on tracks 2, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12
• Scan-Am Quartet – Atlantic Bridges (Connective Records,