Keep it in the family

The jazz cats

Every Sunday the ageless Marjorie Eliot and her son Rudel Drears, 42, stage a free jazz concert called Parlor Entertainment in the living room of their third-floor Washington Heights apartment.

How long have you worked together?
Marjorie: We’re in our 16th year. I started this to celebrate my son Philip, who passed away in 1992. He passed away on a Sunday. Now a joyousness has come [on Sundays] because of the concerts. My son Michael passed away in 2006.

What do you like about working together?
Rudel: My mother was my first teacher. She’s still teaching me things. Marjorie: I am not! Rudel: She’s being shy. She’s a master of transposing: She’s able to put songs in any key. And she likes to try every key on the piano. It’s easygoing and we laugh a lot.

What don’t you like about it?
Marjorie: When he won’t listen to me. Rudel: Sometimes it gets high-octane.

What has been your highest point?
Marjorie: Witnessing his growth, as a musician and beyond. Rudel: There are so many. What makes it is the people who come here. The love back and forth really makes for one great Sunday after another.

What has been your lowest point?
Rudel: I can’t think of anything. Marjorie: You can’t have friction when you’re ready to go onstage. The audience deserves better.

Rudel, do you ever feel trapped?
Rudel: I’d be playing professionally anyway. Marjorie: Even if you weren’t playing here, I’d be managing you…because I think I know everything. Rudel: [Laughs]

—Nicole Tourtelot

Parlor Entertainment, 555 Edgecombe Ave at 160th St, studio 3F (212-781-6595). Sun 4pm, free.