Ellis Marsalis, New Orleans jazz great, dies at 85

Ellis Marsalis, jazz legend, educator and patriarch of the Marsalis family of musicians, died on Wednesday at age 85, Billboard reports. Cause of death are believed to have been complications from COVID-19, according to his family. Harvard Law professor David Wilkins sent a moving text following Marsalis' death: "We can all marvel at the sheer audacity of a man who believed he could teach his black boys to be excellent in a world that denied that very possibility, and then watch them go on to redefine what excellence means for all time.”