After a period of retrenchment that saw Marcus Roberts rejoining early mentor Wynton Marsalis, this shows he’s ready for a more adventurous path.

Sometimes music is about hearing two masters of their craft jam together, amazing listeners with their sheer artistry. That summarizes Across The Imaginary Divide You May Also Like: Bela Fleck, Robin McKelle, Delfeayo Marsalis + Others: Five For the Road Radical Empathy Trio – ‘Reality and Other Imaginary Places’ (2019)

A two-day event in May called “The Music of Jelly Roll Morton” will feature Marcus Roberts performing favorites from the Morton legacy as part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center series in the Rose Theater. You May Also Like: Wynton Marsalis Finally Learned How to Have Fun Again With ‘TheRead More

by Pico Can Old School sound fresh? It did when Wynton Marsalis first burst onto the jazz scene at a time when tradition was largely ignored or widely diluted. After a seventeen year stint in The Count Basie Orchestra, a sideman stint in Marcus Roberts’ combo and recording dates withRead More

Marcus Roberts has burst back onto the jazz landscape, 11 years after his last session, with “New Orleans Meets Harlem, Vol. 1” – one of the Florida-born pianist’s most celebrated recordings. A rich and explorative combining of styles from across the legacy, Roberts’ record nevertheless retains its uniquely Southern voiceRead More

NICK DERISO: With “New Orleans Meets Harlem,” pianist Marcus Roberts explores the connections between two of jazz music’s most elemental tributaries — building on familiar ideas put in place by Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, Scott Joplin, Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. The record, Roberts’ first in eight years, hitsRead More

NICK DERISO: The most interesting thing about this soundtrack recording from the Beatle-based movie “BackBeat” was that it didn’t include, you know, any Beatles music. Was — co-leader of the now-forgotten 1980s rock group Was (Not Was), but more famous by then as the producer who gave Bonnie Raitt’s careerRead More

NICK DERISO: Before going out on his own, pianist Marcus Roberts learned an important thing from former bandleader Wynton Marsalis: This ability to use standards to create a context for original compositions. Marsalis had, at this point, moved away from all-original content into a tight embrace of the repertoire —Read More

by Nick DeRiso While it doesn’t have the cohesiveness of 1992’s “Portraits of Ellington,” this makes its own kind of statement. The playlist is an evocative pairing of older, traditional big-band selections by composers like Billy Strayhorn, with more modern tunes from Miles, Monk and Coltrane. In that way, theRead More