Jazz veteran Ellis Marsalis Jr. died on Wednesday after losing his battle against coronavirus.The New Orleans musician was 85 when he passed away from complications of the COVID-19 virus, his son Branford Marsalis told the New York Times.Ellis Marsalis III, another of the late jazz patriarch’s six sons, added to the Associated Press: “Pneumonia was the actual thing that caused his demise.
But it was pneumonia brought on by COVID-19.”He added that he’d driven from Baltimore to New Orleans on Sunday to be with his father, and other members of the family had seen him before his passing too.Following his death, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement: “Ellis Marsalis was a legend.