Marcus Shelby

Marcus Shelby (born February 2, 1966, in Anchorage, Alaska) is an American bass player, composer and educator best known for his major works for jazz orchestra, Port Chicago, Harriet Tubman, Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio. He has led the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra since 2001 and has recorded with artists as diverse as Ledisi and Tom Waits.

He has contributed numerous musical compositions to works created in collaboration with dance ensembles and theater artists ranging from California Shakespeare Theater to Intersection for the Arts.

Background alt=A group of teens play and hold various jazz band instruments while Marcus Shelby plays upright bass. They are standing outdoors next to a blue building with white trim. Marcus Shelby performs with the Teen Jazz Orchestra in the courtyard of the San Francisco Community Music Center. When Shelby was five, his family moved from Memphis, Tennessee, to Sacramento, California. Shelby played double bass briefly as a teen. He studied electrical engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and worked briefly at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Los Angeles.

In 1988, Shelby attended a Wynton Marsalis concert with his father, which inspired him to rededicate himself to music. composer James Newton, and Charlie Haden.

From 1991 to 1996, Shelby recorded and toured with Black/Note (credited as Mark Shelby), a hard bop group based in Los Angeles.

When Black/Note broke up in 1996, he moved to San Francisco because he "had seen groups like Broun Fellinis" whose tenor saxophonist of the time, David Boyce, "was playing a totally different style", and he felt a need to grow. There he founded the Marcus Shelby Trio and the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra. He has served as Artist in Residence at Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and Composer in Residence at Intersection for the Arts.

In 2013, Shelby was appointed to the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Shelby is a long-time faculty member at the San Francisco Community Music Center.

Marcus has two daughters.

Major works 2002: Port Chicago, 14-movement suite for jazz orchestra 2007: Harriet Tubman, oratorio for voice and jazz orchestra 2011: Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 2015: Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio

Discography With Black/Note 1991: 43rd & Degnan (World Stage) 1994: Jungle Music (Columbia / Sony Music Distribution) 1994: L.A. Underground (RED Distribution) 1996: Nothin' But the Swing (Impulse! / GRP)

As leader 1997: Un Faux Pas!, Marcus Shelby Trio (Noir) 1998: Midtown Sunset, Marcus Shelby and the Jazzantiqua Music Ensemble (Noir) 1998: Sophisticate, Marcus Shelby Trio (Noir) 2001: The Lights Suite, Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra (Noir) 2006: Port Chicago, Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra (Noir) 2008: Harriet Tubman, Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra (Noir) 2011: Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra (Porto Franco)

As sideman/contributor 1994: Judgement, Robert Stewart 1996: The Flow, Faye Carol 1998: Mortyfied, New Morty Show 1998: Intimate Strangers, Marcus Poston 2004: Too Good to Be True, Buford Powers 2005: First Pitch Swinging, Danny Grewen 2006: It's a Good Thing, Jamie Davis 2006: Blue Divine, Tammy Hall 2007: The Shotgun Wedding Quintet, The Shotgun Wedding Quintet 2007: The Code, John Calloway 2007: 12 Gates to the City, Howard Wiley 2008: Faye Sings Lady Day (Live at Yoshi's) Faye Carol 2008: Extraordinary Rendition, Rupa & the April Fishes 2010: On a Day Like This..., Meklit Hadero 2011: Bad as Me, Tom Waits 2014: Faye Sings Lady Day Volume 2 (Live at Yoshi's) Faye Carol

Select collaborations 1993–2006 Musical Director, Jazz Antiqua Music and Dance Ensemble 1998–2004: Savage Jazz Dance Company, Musical Director 2014: The Legacy of Duke Ellington: 50 Years of Swing! with California Shakespeare Theater 2015: Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education, The California Chapter with Anna Deavere Smith

Awards, honors, and commissions 1991: Charles Mingus Scholarship 2000: Meet the Composer residency 2000: Creative Work Fund commission 2003: Equal Justice Society commission 2005: Oakland Ballet commission 2006: Fellow, Resident Dialogues Program of the Committee for Black Performing Arts, Stanford University 2008: Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Award, Best Original Music Score, Sonny's Blues 2009: Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship