Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra

Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra play the Musical Instrument Museum on Wednesday, February 10, 2027. Marsalis is a Grammy-winning trombonist and a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, and he's leading the full orchestra for this one.

He put the Uptown Jazz Orchestra together back in 2007 with a specific goal: to keep certain jazz traditions alive. He's talking about riff-playing, spontaneous group improvisation, and that collective New Orleans instrumental polyphony where different lines weave together at once. The idea came after he realized the New Orleans music community was short on young homegrown talent outside the brass-band tradition, so he built the ensemble to fill that gap. Since then, it's grown into one of the world's premier large ensembles, with four critically acclaimed albums and tours across the US and abroad.

OffBeat described the orchestra's repertoire as "an ever-changing stylistic and rhythmic program" that captures New Orleans's uplifting, all-for-one state of mind. That's a good way to frame it—the music changes from night to night, but the New Orleans spirit stays the same. If you want to dig deeper into what they do, you can find more at theujo.org.

The show is at the MIM Music Theater in Phoenix, starting at 7 PM. Tickets run from $69.50 to $80.50, and members who give $500 or more annually get 10% off.