Watch NEA Jazz Master Ellis Marsalis Perform Live in the KUVO Studio

Returning to New Orleans in 1966, he began freelancing on the local music scene.

Between 1966 and 1974 Marsalis would perform at the Playboy Club (New Orleans), Al Hirt nightclub, Lu and Charlie’s nightclub, Storyville nightclub Crazy Shirley’s as well as again enter the teaching profession, in 1967, as an adjunct professor of African American Music at Xavier University (New Orleans, LA).

As the family continued to grow, Marsalis continued his educational pursuits, attending Loyola University’s (New Orleans, LA) Masters Degree program in the early summer session of 1974. He would also successfully interview for a teaching position at a new Magnet high school for the arts, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), and be hired as an instructor for the Fall semester (1974).

Marsalis would spend the next twelve years at NOCCA as an instrumental music teacher with a Jazz studies emphasis.

In 1986, Marsalis accepted a teaching position out of state.  He became a Commonwealth Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, Virginia), serving as coordinator of Jazz Studies two of his three years there.  In 1989, he returned to New Orleans to become the first occupant and Director of the Coca Cola endowed Chair of Jazz Studies at the University of New Orleans.

During his tenure at UNO he helped fellow colleague Charles Blancq develop a campus performance center called the Sand Bar.  Marsalis would also develop a Jazz Orchestra, which he took, on the eve of his retirement, on a tour of Brazil.  On August 10, 2001, Marsalis officially retired from the University of New Orleans after twelve years of dedicated service.  His retirement was celebrated by a very rare performance of Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis at the UNO arena.

Marsalis has appeared on NBC’s Today show with host Bryant Gumbel; the Tonite show with both Johnny Carson and Jay Leno; the Arsenio Hall show with pianist Marcus Roberts; the Charlie Rose show; Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood; ABC’s Good Morning America with Spencer Christian, as well as several local and regional television shows.  In 1984 Marsalis and New Orleans singer/actress Joanne “Lady BJ” Creighton shared honors at the Ace Awards ceremony for the best single music program on cable television.

Marsalis continues to be active as a performing pianist leading, and occasionally touring, his own quartet. He has several recordings on the CBS-SONY label and currently releases recordings on his own recording label, ELM RECORDS, developed with his wife Dolores and son Jason.