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Russ Macklem is a Detroit/Windsor-based trumpet player, composer, educator, and recording artist for TQM Recording Co. Russ’ 2023 debut, The South Detroit Connection, was nominated for a JUNO award. This album was the first live album recorded in Windsor, Ontario in 22 years. Prior to The South Detroit Connection, the last live album recorded in Windsor was recorded by Detroit trumpet legend, Marcus Belgrave. Belgrave’s son, saxophonist Kasan Belgrave, is featured both on the album, and in Russ’ Quintet.

The Russ Macklem Detroit Quintet headlined at the 2024 Detroit Jazz Festival. Russ’ sophomore release, Introducing: The Russ Macklem Detroit Quintet was released in September 2025. The album has received critical acclaim in DownBeat Magazine and in All About Jazz.
 
Russ’ Quintet appears the first Friday of every month at MotorCity Wine in Corktown (Detroit) and at multiple venues throughout the Midwest. As a sideman, Russ has played with a diverse array of artists including The Temptations, The Four Tops, Amp Fiddler, Dave Holland, The Marley Bros (Bob Marley’s sons), Slum Village, Urban Art Orchestra (De'Sean Jones), Cecil McBee, Frankie Valli, Frankie Avalon, Dave Liebman, and many others.
 
As an educator, Russ is an expert on brass pedagogy, and has students around the world that seek out his advice to fix playing issues and to dramatically improve playing technique. Russ has taught masterclasses and adjudicated festivals all around North America, and currently enjoys teaching jazz trumpet at Plymouth High School and University of Detroit Jesuit High School.
 
Russ earned his Doctor of Musical Arts studying at the University of Miami Frost School of Music where he was on full-tuition scholarship and was Teaching Assistant to Grammy-Award-winning trumpet artist Brian Lynch. His most influential private teachers have been trumpeters Steve Reid, Jim Manley, Chris LaBarbera, Roger Ingram, Charles Ellison, John McNeil; saxophonists Jerry Bergonzi and George Garzone; and bassist Cecil McBee. Other influential teachers include trumpeter Joe Sullivan, and saxophonist Remi Bolduc.
 
After growing up in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, Russ attended college at McGill University in Montreal and received his Master’s degree from New England Conservatory in Boston. He attended the Banff Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, directed by Dave Douglas, in 2005. Russ has also lived in St. Louis, MO and Toronto, Canada.

Russ is the recipient of major grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Windsor Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Windsor Arts and Culture Heritage Fund.
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Russ is the Artistic Director of the ELECTRIC AVE INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL currently in its second year. The first festival, held in summer 2025, featured musicians from Windsor, Detroit, Toronto, and Vancouver. 
 
Russ plays a 1959 CONN Lightweight CONNstellation 36B trumpet formerly owned by Las Vegas great Danny Falcone, and a 1969 CONN 20A Flugelhorn. Russ uses a Ken Titmus custom mouthpiece modeled after a Ferguson/Bell TS for commercial work, a custom Al Cass made for Maynard Ferguson in 1961, a Giardinelli mouthpiece made for Maynard Ferguson in 1960, and a Ferguson/Bell FM on Flugelhorn.
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