Willerm Delisfort and Jason Marshall

Pianist, composer, and educator Willerm Delisfort is a messenger of life using music as his tool. His career extends the continuum of musical styles that ranges from Jazz, Gospel, R&B and many more. Because of this, Willerm’s versatility has created a high demand for him with prominent artists and groups in many genres of music. Born in Little Haiti Miami, Florida, in 1983 he began playing piano at the age of ten and quickly showed a natural talent for music. As a young man he would go on to study with south Florida legends such as John McMinn, Melton Mustafa, Christopher Dorsey. After graduating high school, he would go on to attend a higher education at Florida A&M University, where he would be able to study and play with musicians such as Marty Robinson, Longineu Parsons, Leon Andersen, Rodney Jordan and more. This would be the time when he founded his band Willerm Delisfort Project. Later on after his time in Tallahassee, FL he moved on to the Chicago area to attend Northern Illinois University, where he went on to study with the great Willie Pickens, and Ronald Carter who truly inspired him to want to be a great educator in music. This would lead him on a path where he would work with some of Chicago’s greats such as Von & George Freeman, Ernest Dawkins, AACM, Fareed Haque, Bobby Broom. Also with some of Chicago’s young lions on the come up such as Marquis Hill, Christopher McBride, Corey Wilkes, Maurice Brown, Milton Suggs, MaKaya McCraven, Junius Paul and so many more. After 3 years of working in the great city Chicago, he would go on to move to New York city where he is based right now.

Jason Marshall is a premiere voice on the baritone saxophone, rooted in the bebop tradition yet deeply expansive in his musical curiosity. Based in New York City since 2003, he has built a wide-reaching career as a performer, composer, arranger, educator, and cultural voice. His work honors the joy, complexity, and legacy of Black American music, spanning styles and generations with integrity and soul.

Jason holds a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from Queens College’s Aaron Copland School of Music and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Saxophone from The New School’s School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. Over the past two decades, he has brought his artistry to stages around the world, performing and recording with his own ensemble as well as with artists including Roy Hargrove, Aretha Franklin, Deedee Bridgewater, Chaka Khan, Abdullah Ibrahim, Hermeto Pascoal, Kurt Elling, The Roots, The Temptations, Mingus Big Band, Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Birdland Big Band, Birdland Latin Jazz Orchestra, and New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. His discography as a leader includes Overt Negritude (2006), Sign the Book (2010), Joy Unspeakable (2020), and New Beginnings (2022, Cellar Live). As a sideman, he has contributed to acclaimed projects including Emergence (Roy Hargrove Big Band), Timeless (Kenny Lattimore), Echoes of Ethnicity (Derrick Gardner), Such Sweet Thunder (Delfeayo Marsalis), Centennial Sessions (Mingus Big Band), Storybook (Birdland Big Band), and Soto Blue (Abdullah Ibrahim).