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Wallace Roney , the virtuoso jazz trumpeter described as the only true ward of Miles Davis, died Tuesday in the state of New Jersey at age 59 as a result of complications from the coronavirus , his fiancee, Dawn , has confirmed to The New York Times. Jones .

"We are devastated by the death of our trumpeter brother Wallace Roney from COVID-19 complications. Wallace was a global influence in the jazz community," Miles Davis' sons Erin Davis said on social media in a joint reaction. and Cheryl Davis , and her nephew, Vince Wilburn Jr. "Miles loved him and guided him. We will miss you Wally," they added.

By the time Davis and Roney met in 1983, the trumpeter was already a leading figure in the movement called Young Lions , a group of young musicians dedicated to realigning the sound of jazz with the music of the mid-1960s. twentieth century.

Although he was initially branded as a Davis music clone who failed to claim his own musical creativity, the extensive career he developed could silence those criticisms.

Many of Roney's compositions were born from the most popular jazz to unfold in rhythms of funk, hip hop, pop or Afro-Caribbean music .

He managed to release nearly 20 albums as a band leader, including three with Warner Bros during the height of the Young Lions movement, while his recordings from the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially the LP "Verses" ( 1987), included a mix of jazz musicians of his generation and the previous generation.

"His name is Wallace Roney III. He is 27 years old. He is from Washington and is one of the best jazz trumpeters in the world," the Washington Post said of him in 1987.

Ronery won a Grammy Award in 1994 for his participation in 'A Tribute to Miles' , although the two albums he released in the early 2000s, 'No Room for Argument' and 'Prototype', just after leaving Warner Bros, were considered the most memorable by critics.

Davis was impressed by Roney's musical abilities after seeing him at a concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall in 1983 and invited him to his Manhattan residence the next day.

From that moment, a close friendship developed between the two that culminated in a performance in 1991 at the Montreux Jazz Festival , months before Davis' death.

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