Marcus Roberts

Mart Haniel " Marcus " Roberts ( born August 7, 1963 in Jacksonville, Florida) is an American jazz pianist and composer.

Life and work

Roberts, the son of a gospel singer since the age of five is blind initially played saxophone. He had piano lessons since the age of eight and gained his first experience in church music. Then he studied until 1984 at the Florida State University in Tallahassee. From 1985 to 1991 he was a member of the band by Wynton Marsalis, he worked with his own bands and was a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, whose music director he was in 1994. With this ensemble he brought his 1993 composition " Romance, Swing and the Blues " to the performance. Since the 1980s he undertook with Marsalis and his own band has toured and appeared at major festivals. In 2001, he stood with his trio at the center of a television program that portrayed the Jazz from Lincoln Center. In addition, he contributed to Christophe Beck's score for The Girl and the photographer.

Roberts has worked since 2005 as an Assistant Professor at Florida State University.

Prizes and awards

Roberts won the 1982 competition of the Association of Jazz Educators. In 1987 he was the winner of the first Thelonious Monk Competition. Already with his first three albums (1988-1990) he reached the top of the Billboard jazz charts. His recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue ( 1996) was nominated for a Grammy. At the Olympic Winter Games 2002, he was artist in residence.

Disco printing specifications

• The Truth Is Spoken Here (1988 )
• Deep in the Shed (1989, with Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Rouse, Elvin Jones)
• If I Could Be with You (1993, solo)
• Cole after Midnight (2001)
• A Gershwin Night (2003, with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra )
• New Orleans Meets Harlem, Volume 1 (2007)

Lexigraphic entries

• Martin Kunzler: Jazz Encyclopedia Vol 2 Rowohlt, Reinbek 2002; ISBN 3-499-16513-9