Delfeayo Marsalis and his Uptown Jazz Orchestra will bring great music to Jackson Hall

Trombonist and conductor Delfeayo Marsalis returns to the Mondavi Center at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 23, with his Uptown Jazz Orchestra to perform at Jackson Hall.

One of Marsalis and the band’s most recent albums – the uplifting “Jazz Party” of 2019 – provides a glimpse of what to expect. You will most likely hear some great jazz band classics, along the lines of “Autumn Leaves” (the popular 1945 song that was covered in instrumental form by Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Stan Getz and others), and you you’ll almost certainly hear New Orleans tunes (like “Going to the Mardi Gras” or one of Crescent City’s famous blues acts).

You might stumble upon a jazzy take on Aaron Copland’s orchestral curtain-raiser “Fanfare for the Common Man” or a blast from your childhood in the form of the theme “Sesame Street”. Marsalis might even work in a recently composed issue called “Fauci’s Science” – a flippant and swift artistic response to the universally experienced and not-so-flippant pandemic. (Remember New Orleans is well known for bands that play cheerful music – not dark tunes – at funeral parades.)

On stage, Marsalis performs with a sparkle in his eyes, a tangible sense of pleasure and a mixture of tenderness and respect for old standards, which are now woven through the warp and weft of popular American music. Perhaps Marsalis developed her charming informal by going through her life explaining her first name (which sounds like “Del-fee-yo”) over and over again, and growing up with several well-known siblings who are also prominent. jazz musicians.

Tickets cost between $ 25 and $ 65 typically on mondaviarts.org.