
Jazz trumpeter and composer Wallace Roney died on Tuesday (March 31) due to complications from the coronavirus. He was 59 years old.
According to NPR, Roney was admitted to St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey, last Wednesday.
The Philadelphia-born musician’s illustrious decades-long career began when he was just 12 years old, when he became part of the classical quintet, Philadelphia Brass. He later joined the Jazz Messengers and recorded a number of albums with Tony Williams for Blue Note throughout the 1980s and 90s.
Most notably, Roney performed with his idol Miles Davis at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival, later featured in the film Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. In 1994, Roney won a Grammy with the surviving members of the Miles Davis Quintet for the album A Tribute to Miles.
See the 1991 performance below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LkZX-Oweuw