One among the Giants

Jazz pianist Marcus Roberts recorded a CD in 1991 titled “Alone With Three Giants.”

Meanwhile, something interesting happened: Roberts himself became a giant.

Roberts is one of the most influential jazz pianists in the world, with seven Top Ten albums on the Billboard jazz charts, a Grammy nomination and collaborations with Wynton Marsalis and Seiji Ozawa.

Yet he remains a modest man, as jazz giants go. Just listen to how he describes getting his breakthrough job at age 21, as the pianist with Wynton Marsalis:

“I used to call him on the phone. Ellis (Marsalis, Wynton’s father) gave me his phone number and I used to harass him all the time and ask him all kinds of questions, telling him I wanted to be on the road. When the great Kenny Kirkland left the group, I don’t think there were that many choices. Not many people wanted to play jazz at that time. He didn’t have a long list of people to try out. So I gave it a try and I didn’t know what would happen with it. But we really hit it off and one thing led to another.”

So, to hear Roberts tell it, he just sort of lucked into a job with perhaps the most famous jazz musician on the planet.

Roberts arrives at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox on Saturday to perform a program he calls “Rhythm and Romance,” combining romantic tunes like “You’d Be So Good to Come Home To” and “Our Love Is Here to Stay” along with rhythmic standards such as “The Jitterbug Waltz” and “Shout ‘em Aunt Tillie.”

These reflect some of his wide-ranging influences – and when we say wide-ranging we mean uncommonly so. During the course of one interview, Roberts credited past masters from Scott Joplin to George Gershwin to Johann Sebastian Bach.

“Alone With Three Giants” refers to three of his idols: Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Jelly Roll Morton.

“Those people, oh my God, I’m coming straight from where they’re coming from,” said Roberts, by phone from his home in Tallahassee, Fla. “As well as Scott Joplin, for the ragtime component, which is really at the root of the music. I love Ella Fitzgerald, and a lot of the time, when we’re working on an arrangement, we look to see if there’s a version of Ella singing it. That has a big impact on how I play the melody.”

His most recent CD, “Cole After Midnight,” refers to another two of his musical mentors, both named Cole: Nat King Cole and Cole Porter.

“I’ve been influenced by all kinds of people: The great accompanist Mildred Falls, who accompanied Mahalia Jackson. Ahmad Jamal, who had a big impact on how I set up my trio conception. Erroll Garner. Coltrane is a big influence.”

And he has a “real affinity and understanding” for a composer who bridged the worlds of jazz, classical and pop: Gershwin.

Roberts has recorded legendary versions of both “Rhapsody in Blue” and Gershwin’s Concerto in F. This fits with Roberts’ extensive classical training.

“That training has certainly been helpful to me, from the standpoint of understanding the piano,” said Roberts. “For instance, in Bach’s music, you have to learn to negotiate many lines at once and practice bringing out many voices so the melodies are balanced. With Mozart, you have to have precise, light touches. … For me, it’s been helpful in understanding the many complexities that are involved in jazz piano.”

Roberts, originally from Jacksonville, Fla., lost his sight at age 5 and taught himself to play the piano by age 8. At age 12, he heard Ellington and Benny Goodman on the radio and decided that he wanted to be a jazz musician. He studied both jazz and classical music at Florida State University.

In 1985, he joined Wynton Marsalis’ combo and stayed with Marsalis for six years. Then he launched his solo career which resulted in three straight No. 1 jazz albums.

He will come to the Fox with the bassist Roland Guerin and drummer Jason Marsalis, Wynton’s youngest brother.

“I’ve known him since he was about 8 years old,” said Roberts. “I knew I wanted to use him when he was 14. I talked to his dad (Ellis) and he said, ‘You have to wait at least a year.’ He had a certain regimen of stuff that he wanted the boy to do. We came up with a plan that at age 17 he would probably be ready. And he was.”

The Roberts-Guerin-Marsalis trio has been together since 1995.

“We’re very rare,” said Roberts. “Most jazz bands, if they stay together three or four years, they’re very lucky. I always say a band is finished when there’s nothing left to do. And we have a whole lot more to do.”