Peter Martin
As music director of the Big River Hurricane Benefit Concert held last December at the Sheldon Concert Hall, St. Louis native turned New Orleans resident Peter Martin helped raise more than $20,000 for post-Katrina relief efforts, bringing many of his musical friends from New Orleans upriver to perform in his old hometown. It was a cause near and dear to Martin's own heart, since the pianist's own home in the Crescent City was devastated by the floods, forcing him and his family to relocate to St. Louis.
This fall, Martin is taking the Big River concept even farther north, as he and some of the same musicians who appeared in St. Louis will perform Friday, September 22 in Chicago as part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Jazz at Symphony Hall series. Martin will joined by a cast of New Orleans luminaries including saxophonists Wess Anderson and Victor Goines, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and pianist Ellis Marsalis, performing music ranging in time from the early jazz compositions of Jelly Roll Morton to the present day.
Concertgoers will be be encouraged to donate to Habitat for Humanity’s Musicians' Village, a project started by Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. to build more than 80 homes for displaced New Orleans musicians in the city’s Upper Ninth Ward. For more on the concert and the rest of CSO's jazz series, go here.
2 comments:
You wrote that Martin would be joined by Ellis Marsalis. I can't put my finger on the obit, but I'm sure Ellis died last year.
The elder Marsalis is still very much alive and well. He appeared in St. Louis last December 28 for the Big River benefit at the Sheldon, and continues to gig regularly in New Orleans - most recently, at JazzFest and the club Snug Harbor - and elsewhere.
Go to http://www.ellismarsalis.com/
and select "shows" and you'll see Mr. Marsalis' schedule, which includes the Chicago Symphony Hall date.
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