WMPG’s Jazz At The Movies and the Portland Conservatory of Music are pleased to present the documentary

ELLIS: The Life and Complicated Times of Ellis Marsalis Jr.

Ellis Marsalis was the Patriarch of the First family of Jazz .To his talented kids, Winton, Branford, Delfeayo, Ellis & Jason, he was Dad. To generations of New Orleans musicians, he was a keyboard genius and composer, a teacher and the keeper of the flame.

ELLIS: The Life and Complicated Times of Ellis Marsalis Jr. is the story of one of American music’s heroes: a jazz musician who grew up in New Orleans, survived the racial injustices of Jim Crow segregation, flirted with bebop, and went back to his hometown roots to establish school and university programs to awaken in black students a sense of pride in their New Orleans’ heritage.

“In other places, culture comes down from on high”, Ellis taught them. “ In New Orleans it bubbles up from the streets.”

This movie ELLIS: The Life and Complicated Times of Ellis Marsalis Jr. tells the story of the pianist in his own words and music, ofter superimposed over early archival film footage of the Crescent City, and the vast floods like Katrina that would change its history forever.

Please join us Saturday, May 18th, for the movie about this great man Ellis Marsalis, the heart and soul of the New Orlean’s jazz community, who kept the flame burning and single handedly changed the entire world of jazz.

Tickets are FREE and no reservations are required. Saturday, May 18th, 7 PM, , at The Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St., Portland.