Brian Marsella

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Brian Marsella at the INNtöne Jazzfestival 2019

Brian Marsella (* around 1980 in Philadelphia ) is an American musician ( keyboard , piano , composition ) who has not only emerged in the field of jazz .

Live and act

Marsella, whose father is an amateur jazz musician, began learning classical piano at the age of five. As a teenager he also moved in the world of funk , R&B and fusion and worked with bands like The Dukes of Destiny or The Elgins . At fourteen he was the musical director, conductor and harpsichordist in the performance of Mozart's Bastien and Bastienne at the New Hope Performing Arts Festival and, at 16, the pianist of the world premiere of Peter Cody's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano. He then studied composition at Westminster Choir College and piano at the Juilliard School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore . After a year off from music, Marsella moved to New York and received his Bachelor's degree in Jazz Performance from the New School , where he studied with Richie Beirach , George Garzone , Reggie Workman , Junior Mance , Joanne Brackeen, and LeeAnn Ledgerwood .

Marsella worked in the New York jazz scene from 2000; first recordings were made with singer Dave Morrish ( I Forget How Beautiful You Are ). In the following years he played a. a. in the band The Flail (album Never Fear , 2004). Since 2004 he has been a member of Cyro Baptista's band Beat the Donkey , with whom he also toured Europe and recorded the album Banquet of the Spirits (2008). He is also a founding member of the band Caveman and Meg Okura & The Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble. In 2014 Marsella and his band Imaginarium released the album The Clocks Have Gone Mad . In 2017 he participated in the compilation A Cosmic Journey Reinterpriting the Great Thelonious Monk Songbook . In the same year he published (with Kenny Wollesen and Trevor Dunn ) on Tzadik the trio album Book of Angels Volume 30 with compositions by John Zorn . In the field of jazz, he was involved in five recording sessions between 1967 and 2016 , according to Tom Lord . The critic Peter Margasak (Chicago Reader) described his style as "as if Herbie Nichols or Bud Powell were playing at the speed of light".

Discographic notes

Web links

Commons : Brian Marsella  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c biography (Smalls)
  2. ↑ Tom Lord: The Jazz Discography (online, accessed August 28, 2018)
  3. ↑ Event information at Bimhuis
personal data
SURNAME Marsella, Brian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician (keyboard, piano, composition)
DATE OF BIRTH around 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia