Marcus Shelby (born February 2, 1966, in

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

)Jones, Kenneth
"Marcus Shelby Keeps Jazz Orchestra Rolling"
MTV, December 21, 2000. is an American

bass player A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...

, composer and educator best known for his major works for jazz orchestra, ''Port Chicago'', ''Harriet Tubman'',Hamlin, Jesse
"Marcus Shelby marries lyrical life of Harriet Tubman with jazz"
''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'', October 15, 2007. ''Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'', and ''Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio''.Hamlin, Jesse
"Marcus Shelby’s musical suite on prison industry"
''San Francisco Chronicle'', September 2, 2015. He has led the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra since 2001 and has recorded with artists as diverse as

Ledisi Ledisi Anibade Young (; born March 28, 1972), better known simply as Ledisi, is an American R&B and jazz recording artist, songwriter, music producer, author and actress. Her name means "to bring forth" or "to come here" in Yoruba.Ledisi AllMusi ...

and

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

. 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 Intersection for the Arts, established in 1965, is the oldest alternative non-profit organization, non-profit art space in San Francisco, California. Intersection's reading series is the longest continuous reading series outside of an academic in ...

Background

When Shelby was five, his family moved from

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, to

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

. Shelby played double bass briefly as a teen, but abandoned music until 1988, when he attended a

Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awar ...

concert with his father, which inspired him to rededicate himself to music.Scheinin, Richard
"Marcus Shelby brings Ellington's 'Thunder' to Berkeley"
''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

'', April 28, 2014. Shelby moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and began working with drummer

Billy Higgins Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936 – May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop. Biography Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, be ...

. After winning the

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and ...

Scholarship in 1991 he studied music at

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

with Higgins,Israel, Robyn
"Turning on 'the lights': Jazz composer Marcus Shelby keeps seeking new musical challenges"
''

Palo Alto Weekly The ''Palo Alto Weekly'' is a weekly community newspaper in Palo Alto in the U.S. state of California. Owned by Embarcadero Media, it serves Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, Stanford, East Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills. It was e ...

'', June 28, 2002. composer

James Newton James W. Newton (born May 1, 1953) is an American jazz and classical flutist. Biography He was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. From his earliest years, James Newton grew up immersed in the sounds of African-American music, inclu ...

, and

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking ...

.Johnston, Richard. "Hearing the big picture: Marcus Shelby & the art of storytelling on bass." ''Bass Player''. October 2008: 36+. From 1991 to 1996 he 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 Broun is a surname. It is the Middle English and Scots spelling of Brown. Notable people with the surname include: * Agnes Broun (1732–1820), mother of Scottish poet Robert Burns * Alex Broun (born 1965), Australian playwright and screenwriter * ...

" 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 FestivalMarcus Shelby profile
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Composer in Residence at

. In 2013, Shelby was appointed to the

San Francisco Arts Commission The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cali ...

. 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: ''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: ''Extraordinary Rendition'', Rupa & the April Fishes * 2010: ''On a Day Like This...'', Meklit Hadero * 2011: ''Bad as Me'', Tom Waits

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 Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in ''The West Wing'' (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series ''Nur ...

Musiker, Cy
"Anna Deavere Smith Fights School-to-Prison Pipeline With New Play"
KQED, July 19, 2015.

Awards, honors, and commissions

* 1991:

Scholarship * 2000: Meet the Composer residency * 2000: Creative Work Fund commission * 2003: Equal Justice Society commissionKamisugi, Keith
"Spotlight on Marcus Shelby"
Equal Justice Society, August 15, 2014. * 2005: Oakland Ballet commission * 2006: Fellow, Resident Dialogues Program of the Committee for Black Performing Arts, Stanford UniversityMarcus Shelby Faculty Profile
Stanford Jazz Workshop. * 2008: Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Award, Best Original Music Score, ''Sonny's Blues'' * 2009: Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship

References

External links

*
Discography at AllMusic

''All About Jazz'' profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelby, Marcus 1966 births African-American jazz composers American jazz composers African-American jazz musicians American bandleaders American jazz double-bassists Male double-bassists American session musicians Composers from San Francisco Jazz musicians from San Francisco Living people Musicians from Anchorage, Alaska Musicians from Los Angeles Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee Musicians from Sacramento, California Jazz musicians from Tennessee 21st-century double-bassists 21st-century American male musicians Black Note members Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers members 21st-century African-American musicians 20th-century African-American people