New Orleans Jazz Legend Ellis Marsalis Jr. Dies at 85 from Complications Due to Coronavirus

Ellis Marsalis Jr., a world-renowned jazz pianist and a prominent member of the New Orleans music scene, has passed away at the age of 85.

The legendary musician died on Wednesday at a New Orleans hospital from complications of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), his son Brandford Marsalis told the New York Times.

“He went out the way he lived: embracing reality,” his son Wynston Marsalis wrote about his father on Twitter.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell also paid tribute to the late musician after news of his death broke.

“Ellis Marsalis was a legend. He was the prototype of what we mean when we talk about New Orleans jazz. The love and the prayers of all of our people go out to his family, and to all of those whose lives he touched,” Cantrell wrote in a tribute on Twitter. “Ellis Marsalis was an icon — and words aren’t sufficient to describe the art, the joy & the wonder he showed the world.”

“May we wrap his family in our love & our gratitude, & may we honor his memory by coming together in spirit— even as the outbreak keeps us apart, for a time.”

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Son of social activist Ellis Marsalis Sr., Marsalis Jr. started off his musical career with the clarinet before switching to the piano.

From there, he established himself as a skilled pianist, working with the likes of jazz stars Ed Blackwell and Cannonball Adderley before landing a teaching position at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, the University of New Orleans and Xavier University of Louisiana.

As an educator, he not only taught the likes of Terence Blanchard and Harry Connick Jr., but also helped shape the musical careers of four of his six sons: Wynston, a Grammy-winning trumpeter; Brandford, a saxophonist; Delfeayo, a trombonist; and Jason, a drummer.

In 2008, Marsalis Jr. was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

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Marsalis Jr. is survived by sons Branford, Wynton, Ellis III, Delfeayo, MBoya and Jason, his sister Yvette and 13 grandchildren. His wife, Dolores, passed away in 2017.

As of Wednesday morning, there have been at least 188,247 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, with 3,921 people deaths from coronavirus-related illness.

Worldwide, there are now 877,422 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 43,537 deaths.

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