Joan Belgrave looks on as her husband Marcus as he plays the trumpet in their Ann Arbor home in 2014. MLIVE.COM /Landov
By Gary Graff / May 24, 2015 2:24 PM EDT
Marcus Belgrave, a jazz master whose resume ranged from Ray Charles and Motown to Aretha Franklin and Joe Cocker, and who helped educate generations of younger jazz lions, passed away on Thursday at the age of 78.
A Chester, Pa., native who settled in Detroit during the early '60s – where he played on Motown hits such as "Dancing in the Street," "My Girl" and more – Belgrave as a musician "was magical," says Rodney Whitaker, a Distinguished Professor and Director of Jazz Studies at Michigan State University and a Belgrave student during the mid-'80s. "He was probably the most imaginative rhythmic player to ever live... one of the greatest players of his generation and one of the most underrated musicians, probably because he never left Detroit."
Belgrave, who had battled heart and pulmonary disease for years, died from heart failure at a convalescent home in Ann Arbor, Mich., after being in and out of the hospital since his final public performance, on April 17 in Durham, N.C. His singer, Joan Belgrave, reported that he "passed in his sleep peacefully" and that as recently as Saturday, he "played his horn, sang" and watched the movie Whiplash, about an aggressive jazz educator.
Belgrave's own teaching style was gentler. He was mentored as a teenager by Clifford Brown and Dizzy Gillespie and spent five years with Ray Charles before moving to Detroit in 1963. He also worked with Max Roach, Charles Mingus and Clark Terry, among others; in addition to his own albums, Belgrave's recording resume includes works by McCoy Tyner, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Henderson and B.B. King.
Belgrave taught at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Oakland University, and Detroit's Civic Jazz Orchestra, and he created his own Jazz Development Workshop in Detroit. "The greatest thing I can do is to work with the next generation and the generation after that and the generation after that," Belgrave once said. "I feel a responsibility to help keep this music alive and vital and pass on my passion to others." Among his students were Geri Allen, James Carter, Regina Carter, Karriem Riggins, Robert Hurst, Kenny Garrett, Ray Parker Jr. and Al Jackson.
Read more: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6575965/famed-detroit-jazz-trumpeter-marcus-belgrave-dies-at-78
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