Rick Margitza is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Margitza's paternal grandfather, a Hungarian Gypsy violinist, taught him to play the violin at the age of four. His father also played violin with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Following this he played piano and oboe, and settled on tenor sax while in Fordson high school. He attended several colleges: Wayne State University, Berklee College of Music, University of Miami and Loyola University New Orleans. He toured with Maynard Ferguson and Flora Purim in the 1980s, and moved to New York City in 1988, where he played with Miles Davis. Between 1989 and 1991, Margitza released three sessions for Blue Note Records, and has recorded copiously thereafter, including with Eddie G�mez, Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson, Maria Schneider, McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea. He has also composed a saxophone concerto and two symphonies for orchestra. Since moving to Paris in 2003, he has performed with Martial Solal, Fran�ois Moutin, Louis Moutin, Ari Hoenig, Franck Amsallem, Jean-Michel Pilc and Manuel Rocheman. [More at Wikipedia]

October 24th, 1961 in Detroit (Age 63)