Wallace Roney 1960–2020
Wallace Roney, a star trumpeter—and the only trumpeter ever to study personally with Miles Davis—who built a 40-plus-year career chasing the cutting edge of jazz, died on the morning of March 31 at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey. He was 59.
His death was confirmed by his publicist, Lydia Liebman, who said that the cause of death was complications from COVID-19.
“I can’t believe this man is gone,” said fellow jazz trumpeter and composer Jeremy Pelt on Instagram. “He meant so much to me and his very real presence in the music kept people honest.”
Already an accomplished and recognized musician during his youth in Washington, D.C., Roney broke through to the wider world at the tail end of the 1980s’ “Young Lions” era as a
