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Master’s<br />
Return<br />
By Howard Reich // Photo by CISFR/Dalle<br />
Marcus Roberts didn’t exactly disappear<br />
from the jazz scene, but the end of his<br />
recording hiatus marks the reemergence<br />
of an important voice in the music.<br />
Whatever happened to Marcus Roberts<br />
Eight years ago he released his last CD, Cole After<br />
Midnight (Sony). Since then, silence—at least as far as<br />
American recordings are concerned. Considering that<br />
Roberts recorded Cole a decade ago, it’s astonishing to<br />
realize that an artist of Roberts’ stature and comparative<br />
youth (he’s 45) could go so long without producing<br />
another musical statement.<br />
The wait has ended with the recent New Orleans Meets Harlem, Vol. 1 (J-Master), a selfreleased<br />
trio recording that represents a dramatic updating of Roberts’ pianism. He considers it<br />
a turning point in his career, after a remarkably long sabbatical.<br />
“It was kind of deliberate,” said Roberts of his time away from the recording bins. “It<br />
wasn’t like for eight years I disappeared and locked myself in my apartment. I view that eightyear<br />
period as preparation. It’s like I finished one big stage of my career and was preparing for<br />
the next.”<br />
Nor was Roberts exactly dormant during the past decade. On the contrary, he worked prolifically—but<br />
largely outside the spotlight he had basked in throughout the 1990s. He estimates<br />
that he has recorded seven or eight CDs’ worth of music; four of them, said his long-time<br />
recording engineer, Les Stephenson, are mixed, edited and ready to go out the door.<br />
June 2009 DOWNBEAT 35
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