D’JAM EVENTS
All D’JAM events are FREE and open to the public, to receive updates sign up here.
D’JAM Jazz Stroll
April 27, 2024
SAVE THE DATE! More details coming soon.
*D’JAM Legends of Jazz Awards
More details coming soon.
FILM SCREENINGS – DJAM x USA FILM FESTIVAL
More details coming soon.
ELLIS
April 22 | 4:00 p.m. | Angelika Film Center – Dallas
This event has passed but view more jazz events here.
D’JAM partners with the USA Film Festival.
About the film:
The Marsalis family has been a cultural force since Wynton and Branford reached sudden stardom in New York but far too little is known about the patriarch, pianist Ellis Marsalis, who paved their way. Told in the words and music of Ellis Marsalis, ELLIS chronicles the life of this exceptional New Orleans performer, composer, and educator, the profound influence that the city had on him — and that he had on the jazz that came out of New Orleans. It is also a story of how one man transcended racial injustices he faced from his childhood during segregation to his death from COVID 19.
Interlaced with interviews with his colleagues and his sons Wynton, Branford, Delfeayo, Ellis III and Jason Marsalis, archival footage takes us from segregated New Orleans to his final concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC and a solo concert performed exclusively for the film.
More than a portrait of one of jazz’s heroes, the film places Ellis within key threads of American cultural history as someone who was both deeply affected by the political shifts of his time and who helped to shape them.
Q&A
After the film join us for a Q&A session with director Sascha Just and Delfeayo Marsalis moderated by Sammons Jazz Artistic Director and Steinway Artist Arlington Jones. Read more about them below.
Read More About Sascha Just
Sascha Just
Sascha Just is a New York-based filmmaker, born and raised in Berlin. She emigrated to the US to make films about jazz and jazz-related topics.
Prior to Ellis, Sascha produced and directed Heirs, a feature-length documentary about three New Orleans artists, the short documentary Big Chief about New Orleans Black Indian Chief Darryl Montanta’s path to Mardi Gras, and the short documentary Ambassadors about a competition for the title Jazz Ambassadors to the US. Sascha’s films screened among other at DOC NYC, the American Documentary Film Festival, Katra Film Series, The Segal Film Festival, and the International Institute “Interweaving Performance Cultures”. Ambassadors is part of the permanent collection of the Rancho Mirage Public Library and was finalist for best short documentary at the Queens World Film Festival, 2014.
For her work on the Freytag Collection, an archive of New Orleans performers and performance traditions, the United States Government granted her the rare national interest-based permanent resident status.
Sascha holds a BA in Film, an MA /PhD in Theater Studies from the City University of New York (CUNY). She teaches in the Communications Department of Baruch College, CUNY.
Read More About Delfeayo Marsalis
As an acclaimed trombonist, composer, and producer, Delfeayo Marsalis has also dedicated his prolific career to music theatre and education. Along with the Marsalis family of musicians including his father Ellis, the artist was destined to a life in music.
Marsalis has toured internationally with jazz legends such as Ray Charles, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Slide Hampton, as well as leading his own groups.
At the age of 17, Marsalis began his career as a producer and has to date produced over 120 recordings garnering one Grammy award and several nominations.
In 2008, he formed the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, a highly entertaining ensemble that focuses on maintaining important jazz traditions such as riff playing, New Orleans polyphony and spontaneous arrangements.
Delfeayo also formed the Uptown Music Theatre in 2000. A non-profit organization that empowers youth through musical theatre training. He has written sixteen musicals to date based on historical and/or uniting the community. In addition, he has composed over 90 songs that help introduce kids to jazz through musical theatre and has reached over 5,000 students nationally with his Swinging with the Cool School soft introduction to jazz workshops.
Marsalis has a dual Bachelor’s degree in Music performance and Production from Berklee College of Music, and a Masters in Jazz Performance from the University of Louisville. A Doctorate has also been conferred from the New England College.
Photos
More Online Resources