From a tender age, it was clear that Jason Marsalis had what it took to be great. Jason is the son of pianist and music educator Ellis Marsalis and his wife Dolores, and the youngest sibling of Wynton, Branford and Delfeayo. Together, the four brothers and Ellis comprise New Orleans’s venerable first family of jazz and recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts 2011 Jazz Masters awards. Jason is well known for his prodigious drumming. Working with his father’s group and the great pianist Marcus Roberts, he has fine-tuned his playing in two of modern jazz’s most demanding trio settings. However, with the release of 2013’s “In A World of Mallets” and his recognition as the 2013 Rising Star winner in DownBeat magazine’s annual critics’ poll, listeners began recognizing Jason for his unique sound on the vibraphones.
Since 2000, Jason has been a mainstay on the New Orleans scene as a bandleader from the vibraphone chair. Jason formed the current incarnation of his Vibes Quartet in the summer of 2007, and has spent the last several years touring and developing repertoire and rapport with his young quartet. The quartet’s sophomore release “In A World Of Mallets”, on Basin Street Records, features Jason’s original music, songs from his bandmates, and more. On the album, Marsalis also plays marimba, glockenspiel, tubular bells, vibraphone, and xylophone as he expands on his “discipline” overdubs of recent years.
Jason’s own playing is unique; drawing from a wide range of influences, he performs original music as well as many hidden gems in the jazz literature and beyond. Jason’s knack for selecting compositions that cover a wide range of moods, rhythms, and emotions, engages the audience, and offers surprises around every turn. As a drummer, Marsalis continues to perform frequently with his brothers and father, as well as Marcus Roberts, John Ellis and Double Wide, the Scan-Am Quartet, and others. As a vibraphonist, he commonly joins Shannon Powell and other New Orleans musicians on the bandstand, as well as touring as the featured soloist with the Lionel Hampton Tribute Orchestra. These varied contemporary collaborations shape Jason’s conception for his Vibes Quartet, as do his respect and admiration for past vibraphone mainstays such as Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, and Bobby Hutcherson.
Jason Marsalis has released a series of Quartet recordings on Basin Street Records including In A World Of Mallets (2013), Jason Marsalis & The 21st Century Trad Band (2017), and Jason Marsalis featuring Oscar Rossignoli, Jason Weaver, Gerald Watkins - Live! (2020). These recordings feature original music and standards.
In addition to leading his own band Jason Marsalis has been touring as a featured percussionist with the New Orleans Groove Masters featuring Herlin Riley and Weedie Briamah. He is also one of the featured vibraphonists in the Vibraphone Summit led by Warren Wolf along with Joe Locke and other celebrated practitioners of the vibraphone.
In 2027, Jason Marsalis will release a recording of music by the popular music composer Brian Wilson, titled Good Vibrations.
October 2026
