Two perspectives on contemporary jazz piano came into sharp focus at WHYY Studios in Philadelphia on this mid-February day of 1991. Seated at opposite ends of a pair of large Steinways, Marcus Roberts and Ellis Marsalis performed a program of solo and duo piano improvisations whose source material was the rich library of American jazz and pop songs, and whose style ranged from stride piano to free floating bebop. The interaction between the two players--separated in age by more than three decades--was surprisingly facile. Roberts spent a few years as the piano mainstay in the rhythm section of Wynton Marsalis' band, and the indirect linkage seems to have resulted in a genuine musical empathy between the elder Marsalis and the younger pianist.
WHYY Studios
Philadelphia PA
February, 1991
Marcus solo:
3 tr.
Ellis Solo:
3 tr.
Ellis and Marcus Together:
8 tr.