Marion Hayden

Applied Instructor
Jazz Bass
[email protected]

Marion Hayden is one of the nation’s finest proponents of the acoustic bass. Mentored by master trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, Hayden began performing jazz at the age of 15. She has performed with such diverse luminaries as Bobby McFerrin, Nancy Wilson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Geri Allen, Regina Carter, Steve Turre, Lester Bowie, David Allen Grier, James Carter, Dorothy Donegan, Joe Williams, Lionel Hampton, Frank Morgan, Jon Hendricks, Hank Jones, Bobby Hutcherson, Larry Willis, Sheila Jordan, Mulgrew Miller, Annie Ross, and many others.

Her creative practice centers around her ensemble Legacy. Formed in 2003, Legacy performs original and narrative driven compositional works within the framework of improvised music with an emphasis on African diasporic music traditions.

She is a co-founder of the touring jazz ensemble Straight Ahead, the first all-woman jazz ensemble signed to Atlantic Records.

Widely recognized as an advocate for the preservation of cultural and artistic legacy, in 2016 Hayden was honored for her work as a performer and educator with the prestigious Kresge Artist Fellowship, a fellowship and grant awarded to an elite group of creative artists. Hayden received a 2023 New Music USA composition grant and in 2022 was honored with the Ron Brooks Award from the Southeast Michigan Jazz Association.  In 2019, Hayden received an Art X Grant and a Creators of Culture Grant for original musical works. She was Artistic Director for a 2018 Knight Arts Foundation Grant encouraging young women in jazz and a recipient of the Jazz Hero Award,  a national award given by the Jazz Journalists Association that recognizes people who have made a significant contribution through their artistry and community engagement.

As an arts advocate, Hayden has served as Grant Panelist for the Detroit Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Art-Ops, and the Highland Park Arts and Culture Commission. She also serves as panelist or consultant for South Arts, Detroit Sound Conservancy, Charles Wright Museum of African American History, the Kresge Foundation, Jazz Education Network, Chamber Music America and the McKnight Foundation.

A passionate advocate for youth music education, Hayden is the Geri Allen Collegiate Lecturer in the Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at University of Michigan and Director of Jazz Bass and Jazz Ensembles at Oakland University. She served as the 2023 Ensemble Director for the Sisters in Jazz Collegiate Ensemble for the Jazz Education Network.

As a community educator, Hayden teaches for Michigan State University’s Community Music School in Detroit and is an educator in residence for the Detroit Jazz Festival.  Hayden also conducts the Next Gen Ensemble, a performing group showcasing young musicians.

Recent Projects:

Gateway to Black Eden Project 2024: Procession for Black Eden.  Original work commissioned by New Music USA in response to the sculpture Gateway to Black Eden; by M. Saffell Gardner, installed at Michigan Legacy Art Park.

Curator: 2023 Don Was Presents: A Tribute to Detroit Jazz. A concert featuring 30 artists in tribute to the great jazz legacy of Detroit. Produced by Blue Note Records President Don Was. Concert of Colors.

Ocean: The Life and Times of Phillis Wheatley. A musical suite based on the life of Phillis Wheatley, the first African American to publish a book.

Ancestral Haiku: A video installation by artist M. Saffell Gardner, featuring original music for Quartet and dance.