Branford Marsalis to return home to New Orleans

Flashback: Built after Hurricane Katrina as part of the Musicians' Village community, the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music offers music programming and education opportunities from on-stage performance to backstage and in-studio.

• Named for the patriarch of one of New Orleans' most illustrious and productive musical families, the Center carries on traditions started by Marsalis himself as a music educator and culture-bearer.
• Ellis Marsalis died in 2020 from coronavirus complications.

What he's saying: Branford Marsalis, who last lived in Durham, North Carolina, tells Axios New Orleans that the move is a response to an instinct calling him to come home.

• "It feels right," he says. "It felt right before I got here."

But Branford's return also offers him a chance to pay forward on all the music lessons and traditions he inherited by birthright not as a Marsalis, exactly, but as a New Orleanian, he says.

• "There's a spirit of altruism in this town amongst the musicians in the community," Branford Marsalis says. "And people do this all the time in this town. They just take care of one another."

Worth noting: Branford's brother, Wynton, serves as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

• "Our father was dedicated to creating a more conscious world through jazz," said Wynton Marsalis in a press release. "Branford knows this better than anyone. He is a fantastic teacher, dynamic musician, and engaged thinker. With his soulfulness, insight, and deep commitment to the community, Branford will grow the presence and infrastructure of The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music."