Christopher Marsceill (aka Rev Chris) was born in Boston and raised in
Philadelphia where he was introduced to jazz from his second teacher,
Eric Spiegel. Eric was a Philadelphia pianist and vocalist who made a
full recovering following a car accident and was one of the reasons that
Jazz Bridge was originally created. Following 4 years as the pianist in
the first Settlement Music School Jazz Ensemble he made his way to New
Orleans where he studied under Mike Pellera, Ellis Marsalis, Peter
Martin eventually being mentored by Joe Krown on the ways of boogie
woogie and Professor Longhair style blues.
Next was a string of successful tours with the Ted Hefko Quartet and New
Orleans Juice and then he joined Russel Batiste (the funky Meters), Ian
Neville (Dumpstafunk) and Nori Noraoka in Bill Iuso's "Brides of
Jesus". With "Brides" he opened for, or played with, Widespread Panic,
Ani DiFranco, Blueground Undergrass, Santana and the Dave Matthews Band
as part of the jam-band movement of the early 2000s. While not on the
road he spent his off time performing in the French Quarter with the
Bradford Truby Trio, the Dukes of Dixieland, St. Louis Slim, James
Andrews (Trombone Shorty's older brother) and was one of the rotating
members of Preservation Hall Jazz Band on call when the main band was on
tour. He can also be found on bootleg recordings by Meters bassist
George Porter (as one of his "Runnin' Pahdners"). He also spent time on
keyboards and drum programmer for the No Limit Records act "Who is Kenny
Hagens?". When Russel left the Brides of Jesus they added jazz drummer
Brian Besse and members of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and rebranded
themselves the "Restless Natives"
Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 he relocated to Philadelphia where
he has performed solo weekly since 2007 at Tavern on the Hill in
Chestnut Hill in addition to numerous gigs a throughout the week. In
2013 he formed a Drums N Keys duo that became a trio, a quartet and
eventually the quintet he currently calls his "home". Occasionally the
ensemble becomes a sextet when they perform the re-imagining of Miles
Davis's classic "Kind of Blue" album, commissioned by the Wallingford
Community Arts Center in 2019 and arranged by Rev and trumpeter Bart
Miltenberger.
His ensemble focuses mostly on original music written by Rev but he can
also be found on stage with local outlaw-country act Emmett Drueding and
singer-songwriter Daisy Royce. He has appeared on recordings by
multi-instrumentalist David Cope and on albums by Brian Kors, Humbleman
Band, the Mighty Rhythm Kings and Paul Downie along with about a half
dozen albums recorded during his time in New Orleans.
In 2018 Rev C released his ninth album as a leader, The End of Love,
that is also his third album of solo piano. Recorded at Rittenhouse
Soundworks he moves away from original compositions and instead
showcases his own re-arrangements of songs by Prince, Leonard Cohen, the
Beatles, Tom Tallitsch, Fats Waller and 90s alt-rockers Blind Melon.
His tenth album, a live performance featuring the sextet was released in
limited physical quantities in August of 2019. It will be on streaming
services in early 2020.
