Rojas was born in New York City on February 23, 1963, and grew up in Red Hook, Brooklyn.^[1] His early influences included Eddie Palmieri, Willie Colón, and uncles who played percussion and trombone.^[1] He began on trombone at elementary school, then changed to tuba in junior high school.^[1] At age 15, Rojas began lessons with tubist Samuel Pilafian.^[2] He went on to attend the High School of Music & Art in New York, and studied further at the New England Conservatory.^[1]

"After graduation, he moved back to New York and started to work with a wide variety of musicians in different settings, including bassist Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, composer-saxophonist Henry Threadgill's Very Very Circus, trumpeter Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy."^[1] He has played in the orchestras of the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Ballet.^[3]

Rojas formed the trio Spanish Fly with Steven Bernstein and David Tronzo in 1989.^[3] He has also worked with the American Symphony Orchestra, Foetus, Sly & Robbie, and John Zorn.^[4]

He has taught at New York University, State University of New York at Purchase, and Brooklyn College.^[1]

As co-leader edit

• Brass Bang! with Steven Bernstein, Paolo Fresu, Gianluca Petrella (Bonsai/Tuk, 2014)
• Tattoos And Mushrooms with Steven Bernstein, Kresten Osgood (ILK Music, 2009)

As sideman edit

With Bob Belden

• 1991 Straight to My Heart: The Music of Sting
• 2001 Black Dahlia

With David Byrne

• 1994 David Byrne
• 2012 Love This Giant

With Thomas Chapin

• 1992 Insomnia
• 1999 Alive

With Dave Douglas

• Mountain Passages (Greenleaf, 2005)
• Spirit Moves (Greenleaf, 2009)
• United Front: Brass Ecstasy at Newport (Greenleaf, 2011)
• Rare Metal (Greenleaf, 2011)

With Spanish Fly

• 1994 Rags to Britches
• 1996 Fly by Night

With Sting

• 2009 If on a Winter's Night...
• 2010 Symphonicities
• 2013 The Last Ship

With They Might Be Giants

• 2004 Indestructible Object
• 2011 Album Raises New And Troubling Questions

With Henry Threadgill

• Too Much Sugar for a Dime (Axiom, 1993)
• Carry the Day (Columbia, 1994)
• Makin' a Move (Columbia, 1995)

With Loudon Wainwright III

• 2009 High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project
• 2012 Older Than My Old Man Now

With Victor Wooten

• 2012 Sword & Stone
• 2012 Words & Tones

With John Zorn

• 1992 John Zorn's Cobra: Live at the Knitting Factory
• 2002 Cobra: John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2
• 2011 The Satyr's Play / Cerberus

With others

• 1987 No Dummies Allowed, Charlie Persip
• 1991 Spirit of Nuff...Nuff, Very Very Circus
• 1996 Mundo Civilizado, Arto Lindsay
• 1996 Gravity!!!, Howard Johnson and Gravity
• 1999 Hold the Elevator, Orange Then Blue
• 2000 Muy Divertido!, Marc Ribot
• 2001 Songs I Heard, Harry Connick Jr.
• 2003 Alegría, Wayne Shorter
• 2004 Lake Biwa, Wadada Leo Smith
• 2004 While the Music Lasts, Jesse Harris
• 2008 Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy & Peace, Yo-Yo Ma
• 2009 Arrow, Clare & the Reasons
• 2009 Declaration, Donny McCaslin
• 2009 Tattoos & Mushrooms, Steven Bernstein
• 2009 Trombone Tribe, Roswell Rudd
• 2010 Girls Need Attention, Richard Julian
• 2010 Heavy Dreaming, Ryan Keberle
• 2011 The Gaddabouts, The Gaddabouts
• 2012 Manhattan Jazz Orchestra Plays Disney, Manhattan Jazz Orchestra
• 2016 Stranger to Stranger, Paul Simon^[5]

• Marcus Rojas: Finding the Sound World