Marcus Belgrave

Marcus Belgrave (June 12, 1936 – May 24, 2015) was a jazz trumpet player from Detroit, born in Chester, Pennsylvania. He recorded with a variety of famous musicians, bandleaders, and record labels since the 1950s.

Biography

Belgrave was tutored by Clifford Brown before joining the Ray Charles touring band. He later worked with Gunther Schuller, Carl Craig, Max Roach, Ella Fitzgerald, Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, La Palabra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dizzy Gillespie and John Sinclair, amongst others.

Belgrave was a frequent faculty member at Stanford Jazz Workshop and a visiting professor of jazz trumpet at the Oberlin Conservatory. Among Belgrave's students were Rodney Whitaker, Kenny Garrett, Robert Hurst, Regina Carter, James Carter, Geri Allen, Karriem Riggins, Kasan Belgrave and Carlos McKinney.

Belgrave died on May 24, 2015, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, of heart failure, after being hospitalized since April with complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure.