Rick Margitza

Rick Margitza
Rick Margitza, Pori Jazz Festival, 2012
Background information
Birth name	Richard Dean Margitza
Born	(1961-10-24) October 24, 1961 Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Saxophone
Years active	1980s–present
Labels	Blue Note, SteepleChase, Palmetto

Rick Margitza (born October 24, 1961) 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.^[1]

Between 1989 and 1991, Margitza released three sessions for Blue Note Records, and has recorded copiously thereafter, including with Eddie Gómez, 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, François Moutin, Louis Moutin, Ari Hoenig, Franck Amsallem, Jean-Michel Pilc, and Manuel Rocheman.

Discography

• Color (Blue Note, 1989) U.S. Jazz No. 9^[2]
• Hope (Blue Note, 1990) U.S. Jazz No. 11^[2]
• This is New (Blue Note, 1991) U.S. Jazz No. 19^[2]
• Standard New (EMI, 1991)
• Hands of Time (Challenge, 1994)
• Work It (SteepleChase, 1995)
• Game of Chance (Challenge, 1997)
• Heart of Hearts (Palmetto, 2000)
• Memento (Palmetto, 2001)
• Bohemia (Nocturne, 2005)
• Second Home (2006)

References