If Newvelle’s intent is to make albums that are stand-alone works of art, this is a masterpiece. Once more the black and white cover portrait speaks volumes. Marsalis would not live to see this album released, but the cover reveals a man totally at peace with himself, Zen in the moment. Marsalis looms so large in the New Orleans piano tradition, yet he is off on a tangent of his own, not travelling the same waters that the Professors took, but looking through jazz passageways to a world outside. This music reveals him as thoroughly as the cover portrait. On the sparse solo piano “E’s Knowledge” every note counts, especially the softest touch as Marsalis displays superb control of low volume dynamics and an awesome command of note choices and placements. The pauses sing as loudly as the strokes of the keyboard.
“Remembering John” is a co-write with his son Jason Marsalis, who Ellis gives much space to on this LP. Blocked piano chords underpin a sweeping intro from Jason’s vibes before the blues-steeped theme appears. The sound is reminiscent of the telepathy between John Lewis on piano and Milt Jackson on vibes in the Modern Jazz Quartet. If there was any question that the “John” of the title was Lewis, it is dispelled by Jason’s loving quote of a tag line at the end. Later, “Groove for Bags” evokes the Jackson connection directly, an obvious take on Jackson’s nickname of “Bags” and a play on words with the Jackson composition “Bags’ Groove.” 
“For All We Know” and “Orchid Blue” are translucent, simply phrased piano ballads. “E’s Sound” is a solo piano rumination, starkly pastoral in a Paul Bley kind of way but utterly Ellis in its deepest soul. On “Beautiful Old Ladies” Ellis revisits a composition by his old friend Harold Battiste, playing it slow, stately, a melody of memorable gestures and pauses reminiscent of the mood achieved by Thelonious Monk on “Crepescule With Nellie.” Ellis has done “Magnolia Triangle,” by the great drummer and composer James Black before, but here it’s a happy frolic with Jason, pure joy as they tumble and gambol through the changes. Jason wrote the spirited “Discipline Meets the Family,” which features daughter Marley Marsalis on second piano. The track opens with surging parade rhythms and a dancing piano solo that evolves into the two-piano exchange before Jason comes in on vibes. The song rolls through a call-and-response piano and vibes exchange before returning to the percussion coda.
The record closes with Marsalis by himself, playing a medley of “My Funny Valentine” and “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,” which fit together hand-in-glove despite their thematic differences. I don’t know if these two songs have ever been recorded together before, but it’s instructive to hear the whimsical, tears-through-smiles love song transform into the noble lament of a culture.
Could this be both the perfect Valentine’s Day gift and tribute to Black History Month?
