Make Way for the Last Son of the First Family of Jazz

Jason Marsalis is a bundle of energy. All arms and legs, tapping a cymbal with one hand, a snare with the other, kicking out bass-drum accents with his right foot while his left taps a metronomic beat on a high-hat cymbal, he is the very model of the modern drummer.

It’s probably not surprising that Marsalis, who is 20, is so good at such a young age. He is, after all, the youngest--and the tallest--musical member of what is usually described as the first family of jazz.

But, given the fact that his siblings include the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, 35; the highly regarded tenor saxophonist (and former “Tonight Show” bandleader) Branford Marsalis, 37; and producer-trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, 31, it is surprising that there are those, including his brothers, who say he is the most talented of all.

“Look out for Jason,” said Branford Marsalis. “He’s gonna be a monster.”

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At the Jazz Bakery a few weeks ago, Jason Marsalis--engrossed in a rehearsal with pianist Marcus Roberts’ 10-piece ensemble--looked a lot more like a man in perpetual motion than a monster. So highly regarded by Roberts that he was flown in from New Orleans just to participate--as a second drummer--for two nights, Marsalis alternately sat behind his drum set, or took a seat in the front row to observe the numbers on which he would not play. Even then, though, he was a study in movement, foot tapping, hands tapping out air rhythms, body shifting in sync with the music.

“Yeah, it’s no wonder I became a drummer,” said Marsalis during a break. “The rhythm’s always with me.”

“When I was a kid,” he added with a laugh, “I used to use my hands to play rhythms on the oven because there was a certain place on the side of the oven that had a really good sound.

“I had a toy set of drums when I was about 3 or 4 years old. My parents used to introduce me like, you know, ‘And now, ladies and gentlemen, this is the great Jason Marsalis.’ And I would start banging away, playing nonsense, but loud, busy nonsense, on the toy drum set. And I guess that was one of the things that triggered me to start playing drums for real.”

As the rehearsal continued, Marsalis, working in tandem with drummer Ali Jackson, was clearly playing the drums for real. Roberts was seated in the center of his ensemble, working over passage after passage from memory, using his keyboard to illustrate to the musicians how he wanted certain phrases to be played. Marsalis listened carefully, then, when the passage was played, delivered precisely the rhythmic feeling Roberts was seeking.

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“Working with Marcus is a great opportunity,” he said later. “One of the problems that I’ve seen with the scene today is that a lot of the musicians come out of nowhere. They just go from school right into making records.

“But all the great leaders were great sidemen first. John Coltrane played with Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. Thelonious Monk played with Coleman Hawkins. Miles Davis played with Charlie Parker. And that’s something I’m trying to develop, by playing with Marcus Roberts and with my father [pianist Ellis Marsalis]. I’d like to be a great sideman first.”

Marsalis started on that path at a remarkably early age, sitting in with his father’s trio. By the time he was 14, he was a regular in the elder Marsalis’ group, which will have an album released next year on Columbia.

How did he manage to play at such a high level at such a young age?

“That’s easy,” he says. “By the time I was 6, I was already into jazz, and loved it. I know that sounds hard to believe. But look at it this way. When I was that age, my brothers were making records, and I was hearing all this music, and they were getting all this publicity. At that time, I was all, ‘Wow, this is amazing.’ But I was still into the music.”

Marsalis feels that there were other elements that not only brought him to jazz at a young age, but stamped his progress differently from that of his brothers.

“Musically speaking,” he says, “I think I had a head start. For one thing, I played drums, a rhythm section instrument, while they all played horns. And that gave me the chance to play regularly with my father from the very beginning.

“For another thing, they weren’t even interested in jazz when they were in high school. Music for them was an option, not a necessity, like it was for me. Wynton was serious about classical music, but Branford was into pop.”

What is perhaps most striking about the youthful Jason Marsalis is his centered, balanced quality. Like his brothers, he is articulate, thoughtful, intelligent and opinionated. Yet he insists upon following his own thinking, declining to be cast into any sort of family party line.

“If there was one thing that was stressed in my family,” said Marsalis, “it was individuality. And it was stressed to the point where each of us have different personalities.”

So different in fact, that the four musician brothers (there are two other non-musician brothers) have almost never played together with their father as a unit.

“We did once, for five minutes,” recalled Marsalis.

“And no one was interested,” he added with a laugh. “It was a gig where everybody played together for five minutes on a blues. And then everybody dispersed. It was really weird, and no one remembers it. If you ask Wynton or my father, they won’t remember it. But I remember it. Because I was on stage saying to myself, ‘Man, this is ridiculous. Nobody’s really interested in doing this!’ ”

And perhaps just as well, since the individual Marsalis paths seem to lead in such different directions. For Jason Marsalis, the goal is to graduate from Loyola University in New Orleans and then move to New York to further his career. He is currently a junior, studying classical music performance. Like his brothers, he was urged by his father to establish a firm foundation in classical music fundamentals.

In the meantime, he says, “the leadership thing is not something that I’m going to jump into immediately. I’m not going to rush it. I don’t want to be part of that whole trend in the record business where they see you, and they say, ‘How old is he, 19? Sign him. He’s only 21? Sign him.’ ”

As the rehearsal comes to a close and the other players leave the stage, Marsalis and Jackson remain on stage, tossing rhythms back and forth. As the intensity increases, they trade challenges, knocking out quick, difficult phrases, smiling at the sheer pleasure of making music.

“This is really what it’s all about,” added Marsalis, “the music. Contributing to a band, contributing to jazz. And that’s where I always want it to stay--with the music.”