Sound, Canvas, and Kin: Jasper Armstrong Marsalis in Focus

Basic Information

Origins and Early Trajectory (1995–2015)

Born in 1995 in Los Angeles, Jasper Armstrong Marsalis grew up at the crossroads of performance and picture-making. His early years threaded together two coasts and a house full of sound: a trumpet lineage on one side, a screen-and-stage inheritance on the other. As a teenager, he relocated to New York, absorbing the city’s improvisational energy—downtown venues, DIY studios, and the hum of subway reverb—while sketching out a practice that treated music, images, and installation as parts of the same sentence.

Even in these formative years, the through line was clear: a composer’s sense of arrangement joined to a visual artist’s attention to space. That dual fluency would become his signature: making records that feel like rooms and exhibitions that breathe like albums.

Music: From Standing on the Corner to Slauson Malone 1

Jasper’s public musical life first gained traction through the Brooklyn-affiliated collective Standing on the Corner, a crucible for genre-agnostic experimentation. By the late 2010s he was releasing work as Slauson Malone, carving a path that favored fractured cadences, voice-as-instrument, and a painterly approach to sampling.

A pivotal moment arrived on October 6, 2023 with EXCELSIOR, his first long-form release on Warp Records under the evolved moniker Slauson Malone 1. The album plays like a cabinet of audible miniatures: strings scraped into light, drums that press forward then recede, murmurs and riffs stitched into an elastic architecture. Its singles and videos—including hooks into “New Joy” and “Voyager”—have the tension of a wire pulled taut between private confession and public spectacle.

On stage, the project flexes into performance art. Sets unfold as a choreography of bodies and objects as much as a concert, blurring the borders between rehearsal and revelation. It’s not merely experimental; it’s an experiment performed in real time.

Selected Discography

Visual Art: Installations, Gestures, and Galleries

Parallel to the music, Jasper’s visual art practice has gained visibility across galleries and project spaces. Exhibitions have appeared in London (notably at Emalin) and in U.S. venues, with works spanning painting, sculpture, and installation. The pieces often read like scores you can walk through: materials set in precise relation, silence functioning as a medium, and the viewer’s movement completing the composition.

His installations use economy and tension—wire, canvas, text fragments, stray light—to draw attention to perception’s seams. The effect is a choreography of seeing, where emptiness becomes an instrument and the gallery becomes the room tone of the work. As in the music, the cut is as important as the sound; absence is as articulate as presence.

Selected Exhibitions

Family: A Living Constellation

The name Marsalis carries a particular resonance in American music, and Jasper Armstrong Marsalis stands within that tradition while decisively pointing elsewhere. On his paternal side is the New Orleans-rooted jazz family whose collective output has shaped late-20th- and early-21st-century jazz. On his maternal side is a lineage of screen performance and advocacy, with an emphasis on craft and public impact.

In public conversation, Jasper’s path is often framed as a dialogue with ancestry: how to honor a musical inheritance without repeating it; how to bend the baton toward new forms. The result is not a break but a braid—threads of jazz, hip-hop, noise, and sculpture tied into an unmistakable voice.

Family at a Glance

Recent Highlights (2023–2025)

• 2023-10-06: EXCELSIOR released as Slauson Malone 1, marking his Warp Records debut and catalyzing international press.
• 2023–2025: Touring and festival appearances that stretch the album into a staged, multidisciplinary performance.
• 2024–2025: Continued gallery activity in London and U.S. cities, with exhibition texts emphasizing the interplay of sound, image, and site.
• Ongoing: Public conversations and artist talks exploring composition beyond genre—how rhythm translates across mediums and how installation can be “heard.”

Selected Milestones (Condensed Timeline)

A Practice of Bridges

Jasper’s work thrives on edges: where a song becomes a room, where a sculpture becomes a time signature, where lineage becomes a springboard rather than a script. The pieces often feel like palimpsests—layers of earlier marks faintly visible beneath a fresh cut, an archive of decisions. One senses an artist using both sides of the brain at once: the rigor of composition and the risk of improvisation, the precision of installation and the volatility of performance.

That bridgework is familial, too. The Marsalis name is not merely a legacy; it’s a problem well worth solving—how to carry forward an exacting musical standard while inventing a form elastic enough to contain collage, rupture, and quiet. In that sense, Jasper Armstrong Marsalis writes a different kind of standard: a song you can walk through, an exhibition you can listen to.

FAQ

Who is Jasper Armstrong Marsalis?

An American multidisciplinary artist and musician born in 1995, he records as Slauson Malone/Slauson Malone 1 and exhibits visual work internationally.

Are his parents public figures?

Yes; his mother is actress and author Victoria Rowell, and his father is jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis.

What is Slauson Malone 1?

It’s the current moniker for his musical project, under which he released the 2023 album EXCELSIOR on Warp Records.

Is he connected to the wider Marsalis jazz family?

Yes; he is part of the Marsalis family line that includes Ellis Marsalis Jr. and uncles Branford, Delfeayo, and Jason.

What kind of music does he make?

Experimental, collage-like compositions that blend voice, strings, electronics, and unconventional structures.

Where has he exhibited visual art?

In galleries in the United States and the United Kingdom, including presentations with Emalin in London.

What are notable recent releases or performances?

EXCELSIOR (2023) and subsequent touring and live performance works that merge concert and installation.

Does he share personal financial information publicly?

No; personal financial details such as net worth are not publicly disclosed.