WinterJam100: Jazz Icon - Marcus Roberts Trio

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Saturday, January 31st, 2015
Doors at 7:30pm, Show at 8:00pm

“We call him the genius of modern piano because he is.”
Wynton Marsalis

Pianist, Marcus Roberts, is known around the world for his creative, virtuosic and powerful jazz piano style.

"I plan never to stop studying and sharing in the creation of great music. When I play, I play for the people. Jazz is not an elite art form. It was created by and grew from the soil of our rich and, at times, difficult American experience, and its resonance will continue as long as our democratic structure exists,” he explains.

Marcus Roberts grew up in Jacksonville, Florida where his mother’s gospel singing and the music of the local church left a lasting impact on his own musical style. He began teaching himself to play piano at age eight, a few years after losing his sight, and had his first formal lessons at age twelve. Roberts studied classical piano at Florida State University withLeonidus Lipovetsky. While at FSU, Roberts won the first of many competitions and awards garnered over the years. At age 21, he began touring with Wynton Marsalis and stayed for over six years. Roberts’critically-acclaimed legacy of recorded music reflects his tremendous versatility as an artist and includes solo piano, duets, trio arrangements of jazz standards, original suites of music, large ensemble works, and symphony orchestra recordings (beginning with his Grammy-nominated Portraits in Blue, SonyClassical, 1996).

He premiered his ground-breaking arrangement of Gershwin’s “Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra” with the New Japan Philharmonic and with the Berlin Philharmonic for their annual Wäldbuhne concert (DVD: A Gershwin Night, EuroArts 2003).

Roberts’ recent recording,New Orleans Meets Harlem, Volume 1 (J-Master Records, 2009) is the trio’s celebration of how early ragtime, blues, and New Orleans’ jazz influences can be combined with the virtuosic Harlem styles to create an entirely
new sound. Roberts’ deep respect for the contributions and achievements of the great masters of jazz and classical music has led to his highly innovative and original piano style and philosophy of jazz improvisation.

Roberts’ is an extremely active composer and arranger, with numerous individual compositions and entire suites of music. He is also dedicated to the training and development of younger musicians (Jason Marsalis, Marcus Printup, Nicholas Payton, Ronald Westray, VincentGardner and Roland Guerin, to name a few).

Tickets at:
http://www.islandmusicfest.com/performers/jazz-icon-marcus-roberts/