To fully understand the quality of the competitors in the competition, you must first understand the structure of the competition itself. The Ellis Marsalis International Jazz Piano Competition was structured as (4) four individual competitive performance segments over a (2) two day period.  Covering multiple styles in the jazz idiom the competitors were required to perform pieces from the bebop, modern jazz, Latin jazz, standards, blues, and New Orleans lexicon over the solo piano, trio, and quartet formats.

​

As an additional layer of challenge in the quartet segment the competitors had the additional difficulty of not only accompanying an instrumentalist on one song and a vocalist on another song, but they were required to sight transpose for the vocalist on the spot. All of this was done without rehearsal and without knowing which songs were to be performed by them until they stepped on stage.

​

Below is a brief description of the (4) Segments:

​

Day One

​

Segment One - Ellis Marsalis & the New Orleans Jazz Masters

In Segment One competitors had to choose one song written by Ellis Marsalis and one song written by one of a select few of modern New Orleans Jazz Masters and perform them with a trio.

​

Segment Two – Plus One

In Segment Two competitors had to perform two songs which were randomly selected for each at the time of their performance with an instrumentalist & vocalist without any benefit of rehearsal while having to sight transpose for the vocalist to their key.

​

Day Two

​

Segment Three – Solo Piano

In Segment Three competitors had to perform a ballad and a latin jazz piece all in solo form.

​

Segment Four – The Trio

In Segment Four competitors had to perform three songs a Blues, Bebop, and an Original) to not only show how each competitor dealt with the basic language that is the foundation of the jazz idiom but how they could continue the idioms growth.