Famed Detroit jazz trumpeter Marcus Belgrave dies at 78
Source: AP
By JEFF KAROUB
DETROIT (AP) — Marcus Belgrave, a jazz trumpeter who graced stages and studios with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Cocker and Motown artists galore, died Sunday. He was 78.
Belgrave died at an Ann Arbor care facility and the cause of death was heart failure, said Hazelette Crosby-Robinson, a cousin of Belgrave's wife Joan.
Belgrave remained active on the Detroit and international jazz scenes up until his death. Born into a family of musicians in Chester, Pennsylvania, he started playing professionally at 12 and joined The Ray Charles Band in the late 1950s — what he once described as "the beginning of my musical life."
He came to Detroit in 1962 and became a studio musician for Motown Records, playing on hits including "My Girl," ''The Way You Do the Things You Do" and "Dancing in the Street." After Motown decamped to California in the early '70s, Belgrave stayed in Detroit and co-founded Tribe Records and recorded with a collective of jazz artists.
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FILE - In this Sept. 2, 2012 file photo, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave performs at the 33rd annual Detroit Jazz Festival, in Detroit. Belgrave, a jazz trumpeter who graced stages and studios with Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Cocker and Motown artists galore, died Sunday, May 24, 2015. He was 78. (AP Photo/Detroit News, Ricardo Thomas, File) DETROIT FREE PRESS OUT; HUFFINGTON POST OUT; MAGS OUT
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