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Ellis Marsalis, jazz pianist, educator, and patriarch of the Marsalis family, has died at the age of 85. His death was announced in tweets from New Orleans Mayor LaToya Campbell and Jazz at Lincoln Center, where his son Wynton is managing and artistic director.

He reportedly went into the hospital over the weekend with symptoms of pneumonia. The New York Times reports that his son Branford says the cause of death was complications from COVID-19.

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Originally posted by dolmansaxlil:
When I participated in Music Fest Canada a million years ago, Ellis Marsalis was one of the adjudicators for our jazz band. Branford was also adjudicating. They were both incredibly kind and supportive to a bunch of high school students. I had an improv solo bit at the beginning of one of the songs we did and I remember very clearly how gently Ellis guided me to improve on it during our session with him. He spent maybe three minutes on it with me, just making little adjustments, and my subsequent performances were a hundred times better for it.