John Marshall

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John Marshall is available for Workshops and special guest appearances.

to hear unedited NYC appearances go to smallsjazzclub.com ( -> archives)

John Marshall plays B&S-Trumpets and Flugelhorns exclusively b-and-s.com

John Marshall was born in Wantagh, NY in 1952. From 1971 to 1991, he worked and recorded with a long list of jazz greats. Buddy Rich, Mel Lewis, Lionel Hampton, Gerry Mulligan, Ornette Coleman, George Coleman, Buck Clayton, Mario Bauza and Dizzy Gillespie, to name only a few. Along the way, he constantly worked at perfecting his craft, studying with the great brass teacher Carmine Caruso as well as jazz trumpeter Lonnie Hillyer. He also led the Jazz quintet “The Bopera House” from 1987 to 1991, and stayed very busy as an in-demand studio player.

In 1992 the West German Radio-Television (WDR) Big Band in Cologne, Germany, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse and he moved his base of operations there, assuming the position of their principal jazz trumpet soloist. However, despite his busy schedule there, he still finds time to return to NY at least twice a year to perform and record. His most recent appearance there, along with tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart and drummer Leroy Williams was very favorably reviewed in Jazz Improv NY Magazine by none other than Ira Gitler.

John also leads an outstanding european quintet with Dutch tenor saxophonist Ferdinand Povel. Since 1996, John has released eight CDs as a leader or co-leader and several more as a specially featured guest. Meanwhile, his reputation has continued to grow through the many concerts and CDs of the WDR Big Band.

Watch John Marshall's videos on youtube.com/marshallbop

Review of John Marshall Quintet at Small's Jazz Club in NYC, August 7, 2010

/Ira Gitler's Apple chorus column in Jazz Inside_magazine, September 2010

After a sojourn in France I returned to NYC just in time to catch one of my favorite groups, the John Marshall Quintet, one one of the two annual trips the trumpeter/leader takes to New York from Germany and his regular seat in the WDR Big Band.

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Review of "Waltz For Worms", All About Jazz - New York, August 2010

This disc is a knock-out – an old-fashioned (in the very best possible sense) jazz quintet album with hip tunes, smart playing and the kind of brevity and sense of swing always delightful to hear. Marshall was a fixture in New York, playing with Buddy Rich, Gerry Mulligan, Lionel Hampton and Mel Lewis (and that’s just a few!) and his musicianship has always been impeccable: a beautiful boppish sound on trumpet and a way of playing the right stuff for every occasion. Since 1992, he’s been the principal trumpet soloist with the WDR Big Band of Cologne.

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Review of "Marshall Arts", Blue Jack CD 47, recorded on Oct 30 & 31, Nov 1, 2006 in Osnabruck, Germany

Although none of these musicians is a household name, they are all excellent veteran players. Their relative obscurity is due in large part to location. The two Americans, trumpeter Marshall and bassist Goldsby, have spent almost all of the last two decades in Germany as members of Cologne’s stellar WDR big band.

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Review of the John Marshall/Ferdinand Povel Quintet in Jazzclub Hannover, 06.04.2009:

Quintet Of The Sly Old Foxes
At the end of the evening, one heard it again and again, "Man, was that good!"......Very seldom have the concert-goers been in such complete agreement..... The audience was thrilled by the crackling, nimble playing of five musicians, communicating so completely with another.

/Bernd Schwope, 08.04.2009, Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung

Review of the John Marshall NY All-Star Quintet featuring Grant Stewart at der Schmiede, Düsseldorf, 17.10.2009:

The Finest NY Jazz
That good old stuff is still around! The word had spread, that the performance in the Schmiede was to be the finale and high-point of their tour. What followed was a masterful exposition of modern jazz.

Barbara Steingiesser, Rheinischer Post, 19.10.2009

Review of the John Marshall/Ferdinand Povel Quintet at the Jazzclub Minden, 30.01.2010:

Masterfully Delivered Classics-John Marshall And Ferdinand Povel Let The Sparks Fly
Both of these first-class instrumentalists spun out their improvisations with impressive technique., sometimes together, sometimes alternating with each other.....Altogether. a concert at the very highest level, played by musicians perfectly complementing each other.

Kirstin Rickert, 02.02.2010, Mindener Tageblatt

Review of “Live At Le Pirate”, Organic Music CD 9750 - The John Marshall NY All-Star Quintet featuring Grant Stewart, recorded live in Rosenheim, Germany on April 11-12. 2007:

A thoughtful, insightful player, Marshall has impressive technique and also offers sensitivity and feeling. On "Live At Le Pirate", recorded in Germany in April 2007. he proves his prowess on trumpet and flugelhorn, producing amazing extended phrases without a breath. His precise playing, consistently displaying a smooth, clean tone, sounds effortless.

/Laurel Gross, All About Jazz NY, January 2009

Review of the John Marshall-Ferdinand Povel Quintet at the Jazz Schmiede in Düsseldorf, March 28, 2008:

“Just as expected, we heard an evening of music that very convincingly carried on the bebop flame.”
“Ferdinand Povel showed us once again, with his masterful rendition of “Ghost Of A Chance”, that he still one of the very top tenor men anywhere.”

/Rüdiger Böttger, Jazz Podium (Germany) May 2008

Review of “Live At Le Pirate”, Organic Music CD 9750 - The John Marshall NY All-Star Quintet featuring Grant Stewart, recorded live in Rosenheim, Germany on April 11-12. 2007:

“‘John Marshall Quintet Live At Le Pirate’ finds a beautifully-balanced mainstream quintet having fun at the gig. When I first heard John Marshall. at ‘The Garage’ in downtown New York City, he had his own style perfectly in place: boppish fluidity and harmonic sophistication with a decidedly old-school devotion to swinging melody, as if Clifford Brown and Buck Clayton had joined forces. Marshall has a lovely tone, his phrases seem fresh”

/Michael Steinman, Cadence, USA, Okt-Nov-Dec 2008

Review of “Live At Le Pirate”, Organic Music CD 9750 - The John Marshall NY All-Star Quintet featuring Grant Stewart, recorded live in Rosenheim, Germany on April 11-12. 2007:

“The live recording offers us a typically first-class John Marshall performance that strongly conveys the great interaction between the musicians, and the sheer fun of playing together”

/Rüdiger Böttger, Jazz Podium (Germany) May 2008

Review of the John Marshall NY Quintet, featuring Grant Stewart, playing at Small′s Jazz Club in New York City on December 28-29,2007:

“I could single out any number of fine solo performances, but it was the band′s consistent radiation of the joy of playing that kept me in rapt attention for two sets”

/Ira Gitler, Jazz Improv NY Magazine, February 2008

• Download Jazz Podium article (german, Oct 2009) as PDF (134 KB)
• Download Jazz Journal Interview (Feb 2009) as PDF (1.2 MB)