Names and faces
■ Branford Marsalis, the jazz saxophonist and composer whose career includes movie scores, Grammy-winning recordings and a stint as the leader of The Tonight Show band, is taking on a new job in his hometown of New Orleans. Marsalis was to be named Tuesday as the new artistic director for the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music. The center is named for Branford’s late father, patriarch of a family of accomplished New Orleans musicians that also includes trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis. The Ellis Marsalis Center for Music provides music and cultural education programs for young people and adults. It is part of the Musicians’ Village, a housing development built in cooperation with Habitat for Humanity. The elder Marsalis died in 2020, a victim of the covid-19 pandemic. “I hope to make my dad proud,” Branford Marsalis, 63, said in a statement released ahead of Tuesday’s official announcement.
■ The Library of Congress announced Tuesday that songwriter-performer Elton John and lyricist Bernie Taupin will receive the library’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, called by the institution “one of the great songwriting duos of all time.” They will be bestowed the prize March 20 at an all-star tribute concert in Washington. “Elton John and Bernie Taupin have written some of the most memorable songs of our lives. Their careers stand out for the quality and broad appeal of their music and their influence on their fellow artists,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement. Their hits include “Friends,” “Your Song,” “Tiny Dancer,” “Rocket Man” “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” “Bennie and The Jets” and “Crocodile Rock.” John has retired from touring. The prize, named after Jazz Age songwriters George and Ira Gershwin, is described as the “nation’s highest award for influence, impact and achievement in popular music.” “I’ve been writing songs with Bernie for 56 years, and we never thought that one day this might be bestowed upon us,” John, 76, said in a statement. “It’s an incredible honor for two British guys to be recognized like this. I’m so honored.” “To be in a house along with the great American songwriters, to even be in the same avenue is humbling, and I am absolutely thrilled to accept,” Taupin, 73, said in a statement.