Delfeayo Marsalis and Uptown Jazz Orchestra return with free online event starting Feb. 21

Center presents its second ‘Up Close and Virtual’ concert featuring famed trombonist and Uptown Jazz Orchestra

The Center for the Performing Arts’ free “Up Close and Virtual” online event series will continue with a performance by Delfeayo Marsalis and Uptown Jazz Orchestra. The virtual concert will be available to watch beginning at noon Monday, Feb. 21, and will continue to stream until noon Friday, Feb. 25. Registration is required. Visit Center for the Performing Arts online for more information and to register. A grant from the University Park Student Fee Board helps make the program free of charge. In November 2020, the center livestreamed the trombonist and his orchestra performing an expertly recorded and energetic concert from New Orleans. In this follow-up concert, the musicians will perform mostly original music celebrating the resilient and triumphant nature of Americans in the Deep South, including modern riffs and gospel chants. Marsalis was the guest artist in a December webisode of the center’s “Meeting the Moment with Michael Mwenso.” In that interview, Marsalis commented on jazz education’s emphasis of technique over fostering artistic soul.

I hear lots of guys, and man they can really play. And they can play the horn, and they can run the changes, and they can connect the dots. But that real statement that reaches the people and is really poignant is very difficult to come by. It’s something about sharing the bandstand with somebody.” — Delfeayo Marsalis

The hard-swinging Uptown Jazz Orchestra, a mainstay in New Orleans jazz clubs, emphasizes groove, riff playing and polyphonic improvisation. “A performance by the Uptown Jazz Orchestra is a traveling street parade in the grand tradition of its hometown celebrations, from Mardi Gras to the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival,” wrote JazzBluesNews.com. Watch Delfeayo Marsalis and the orchestra perform “7^th Ward Boogaloo.” The Delfeayo Marsalis and Uptown Jazz Orchestra concert is part of the Center for the Performing Arts Fierce Urgency Festival, with a theme this season of “Hop Resist Heal.” Patricia Best and Thomas Ray, Charlotte Zmyslo, Nancy Gamble and Nancy Wolf sponsor the performance. Eisenhower Auditorium Endowment provides additional support. Find the Center for the Performing Arts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.