| For The Record... |
| Born October 16, 1969, in Waco, TX; son of Roy Allan (a musician and member of the U.S. Air Force) and Velera Hargrove. Education: Attended Berklee School of Music, 1988–90; attended New School for Social Research Jazz and Contemporary Music Program, 1990. Discovered by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in Dallas, TX, 1986; toured Japan and Europe; formed quintet and released first album, Diamond in the Rough, Novus, 1990; appeared with saxophonist Sonny Rollins at Carnegie Hall concert, New York City, 1991; premiered first extended composition, "The Love Suite in Mahogany," Lincoln Center, New York City, 1993; participated in Verve Records 50th anniversary celebration, Carnegie Hall, 1994; offered series of master classes and clinics in the New York City public schools, 1994; released Family and Charlie Parker tribute, Parker's Mood, 1995. Awards: Down Beat Student Music Award, 1988; first place, 1992 Jazz Times Readers' Poll; voted "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition" in Down Beat's 1993 Critics' Poll; Grammy Award, for Habana, 1997. Addresses: Record company—Verve Records, Worldwide Plaza, 825 Eighth Ave., New York, NY 10019. |
Jazz musician, trumpet player
After recording his highly acclaimed first album at age 20, trumpet and flugelhorn player Roy Hargrove became a charter member of a precocious group of jazz prodigies known as "The Young Lions." Hargrove, along with fellow trumpeters Nicholas Peyton and Marlon Jordan, saxophonists Antonio Hart and Joshua Redman, bassist Christian McBride, and a host of other young players, ignited a global resurgence in the popularity of jazz. Intelligent, well-educated, and articulate, with a strong sense of jazz's rich history, these musicians were signed by major recording labels and supported by the kind of publicity formerly reserved for pop stars.
In an astonishingly brief time, Hargrove became one of the most influential artists of this young generation. He developed an extremely personal style that tempered brilliant virtuosity with grace and passion. Tom Masland of Newsweek remarked of Hargrove, "He plays with a sweetness that speaks of a world of hurt." Even early in his career, Hargrove's work showed a sense of order that many players take decades to achieve. As New York Times writer Richard B. Woodward put it, his solos are a "string of sentences that read as paragraphs."
Introduction to Jazz
Hargrove was surrounded by music from an early age, but it was his elementary and high school band director, Dean Hill, who sparked his interest in a performing career. Hill not only guided Hargrove's development as an improviser, but introduced him to a variety of great jazz musicians, including David "Fathead" Newman, a legendary sax player who many years later joined Hargrove on his eighth album, Family.
While working with Hill, Hargrove discovered the music of Clifford Brown, a brilliant trumpeter who recorded extensively in the 1950s and who died at age 25. It was Brown's example, Hargrove told Rocky Mountain News writer Norman Provizer, that gave the young trumpeter confidence in his own musical gifts. "That was the key that opened the door for me," he recalled. "There have always been musicians who could play no matter what age they were. If you love it, you will search it out regardless of your age."
Like many jazz musicians of his generation, Hargrove also owed an important debt to trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. After hearing Hargrove perform at Dallas's Arts Magnet High School, Marsalis invited him to sit in with his group at the Caravan of Dreams Performing Arts Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The performance effectively launched Hargrove's career, and though some writers later tried to promote competition between Hargrove and his mentor, the younger musician has demonstrated nothing but respect and admiration for Marsalis. "I really dig Wynton's place in society," he told Woodward. "He's a tremendously dedicated person." In 1995 Hargrove put all rumors of a feud to rest by inviting Marsalis to join him on his Family album.
Hargrove's debut at the Caravan of Dreams led to extensive tours of the United States and Europe. In 1990, after two years at Boston's prestigious Berklee School of Music, he moved to New York City, formed his first quintet, and released his debut album, Diamond in the Rough. This album, and the three succeeding recordings Hargrove made for the Novus label, were among the most commercially successful jazz recordings of the early 1990s, and made the young trumpeter one of the music's hottest properties. Unimpressed by stardom, Hargrove continued to develop his craft by performing with jazz giants such as saxophonist Sonny Rollins and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
As Hargrove's talents as a soloist matured, so did his strength as a bandleader. During the early 1990s Hargrove experimented with a variety of personnel, trying to build a tightly focused ensemble. As he told Provizer, "No matter how many people you have in a group, you need to think as one." In 1992 he laid the foundation for future groups by hiring bassist Rodney Whitaker and drummer Gregory Hutchinson, who together comprised one of the finest rhythm units in modern jazz. By the release of 1993's Of Kindred Souls, Hargrove's exacting taste and hard work had paid off. In the words of San Francisco Chronicle writer Derk Richardson, he had found "the kind of unified group feeling that has distinguished the most fondly remembered acoustic jazz units, from the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet, through the classic Miles Davis bands of the 1960s."
In 1994 Hargrove made a widely publicized move to Verve Records and released The Roy Hargrove Quintet with the Tenors of Our Time. The concept for the recording was unique: Hargrove's own quintet, featuring sax player Ron Blake and pianist Cyrus Chestnut, in addition to Whitaker and Hutchinson, was joined by some of jazz's greatest tenor sax players, including veterans such as Joe Henderson and Stanley Turrentine, and relative newcomers like Branford Marsalis (Wynton's brother) and Joshua Redman. But unlike other "all-star" jam recordings, the album presented each guest soloist individually, in repertory especially chosen to illustrate his talents. The recording, dubbed "a jazz classic" by Star-Ledger critic George Kanzler, was one of the best-selling jazz albums of 1994.
In June of 1995 Hargrove released Family, his second recording for Verve. As the title suggests, the album paid tribute to the musicians and relatives who played a significant role in the trumpeter's life. Like The Tenors of Our Time, Family featured a variety of guest artists. "Young Lions" such as Christian McBride and sax player Jesse Davis, as well as established figures like pianist John Hicks and drummer Jimmy Cobb once again joined Hargrove's quintet. The result was an exciting and heartfelt look at jazz's past, present, and future.
Family also showcased several of Hargrove's own works. "The Trial" was a dark and intense movement from his extended composition "The Love Suite in Mahogany," which had premiered at New York City's Lincoln Center in September of 1993. The piece featured an imaginative duet for bowed bass and soprano sax. The Latin-tinged "Another Level" placed the innovative solos of Hargrove, Blake, and pianist Stephen Scott against a complex background of shifting rhythmic patterns. And "Trilogy" painted brief portraits of three of Hargrove's family members: the lush, tender "Velera" paid homage to Hargrove's mother; "Roy Allan" evoked the sousaphone playing of Hargrove's father with an infectious, driving bass line; and the looping melody of the blues number "Brian's Bounce" was inspired by Hargrove's energetic brother.
Jazz "Makes a Difference"
As Hargrove's star continued to ascend, he also dedicated himself to spreading jazz's affirmative message to a new generation of musicians. Following Wynton Marsalis's lead, he began giving workshops for jazz musicians in high schools throughout the United States. "There is a positive aspect to playing music, and it makes a difference when you can reach young people around the country and tell them about jazz," he told Down Beat columnist June Lehman. "You may inspire a young person to do great things just by having music in their life."
Later in 1995 Hargrove released Parker's Mood. The album was recorded to commemorate the 75th birthday of saxophone legend Charlie Parker—nicknamed "Bird"—with Christian McBride on bass and Stephen Scott on piano. According to The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, the album was "a delightful meeting of three young masters, improvising on sixteen themes from Bird's repertoire. Hargrove's luminous treatment of 'Laura' provides further evidence that he may be turning into one of the music's pre-eminent ballad players, but it's the inventive interplay among the three men that takes the session to its high level."
For his next musical endeavor, Hargrove abandoned bop for Afro-Cuban. Habana, released in 1997, was inspired by jam sessions between the trumpeter and the Cuban dance band Los Van Van. The chemistry between the performers culminated in the formation of a ten-piece group named Cristol, which also included Cuban piano sensation and jazz legend Chucho Valdes and guitarist Russell Malone.
Hargrove's musical restlessness led him from Afro-Cuban and borderline progressive jazz to orchestral jazz on his 1999 follow-up, Moment to Moment. On this disc, Hargrove was joined by drummer Willie Jones III, alto sax player Sherman Irby, pianist and arranger Larry Willis, and bass player Gerald Cannon. Gild Goldstein and Cedar Walton also contributed string arrangements. In 2003 Hargrove released an all-star collaboration, Hard Groove, which featured such guests as Erykah Badu, Common, D'Angelo, Marc Cary, Q-Tip, Me'Shell NdegeOcello, Cornell Dupree, and Karl Denson. All Music Guide critic Paula Edelstein wrote: "Overall, Roy Hargrove has evolved as a hipper version of himself and given his listeners an entirely new musical direction than that heard on his Grammy-winning Habana or his sensuous ballad recording Moment to Moment."
In 2006 Hargrove released two albums, Distractions and Nothing Serious. The former album featured electric instrumentation, and the latter is an acoustic bop album. All Music Guide critic Thom Jurek declared Distractions a "deeply gratifying, fun, and in-the-pocket album. It's perfect for a steamy summertime." Featuring guest appearances by David "Fathead" Newman and D'Angelo, the album's tracks veer into the funk territory established in the 1970s by such horn-based bands as the Ohio Players and George Clinton's Parliament Funkadelic. Nothing Serious, on the other hand, was an acoustic outing that found Hargrove once again flirting with Afro-Cuban sounds, swing, and, of course, bop.
Selected Discography
Diamond in the Rough, Novus, 1990.Public Eye, Novus, 1991.(Contributor) Antonio Hart, For the First Time, Novus, 1991.(Contributor) Sonny Rollins, Here's to the People, Milestone, 1991.(Contributor) Stephen Scott, Something to Consider, Verve, 1991.(Contributor) New York Stories, Capitol, 1992.The Vibe, Novus, 1992.Roy Hargrove and Antonio Hart: The Tokyo Sessions, Novus, 1992.Of Kindred Souls, Novus, 1993.Approaching Standards, Novus, 1994.Roy Hargrove Quintet with the Tenors of Our Time, Verve, 1994.(Contributor) Johnny Griffin, Chicago, New York, Paris, Verve, 1995.(Contributor) Christian McBride, Gettin' to It, Verve, 1995.(Contributor) Teodross Avery, In Other Words, GRP, 1995.(Contributor) David Sanchez, Sketches of Dreams, Columbia, 1995.Family, Verve, 1995.Parker's Mood, Verve, 1995.Habana, Verve, 1997.Moment to Moment, Verve, 1999.Hard Groove, Verve, 2003.Distractions, Verve, 2006.Nothing Serious, Verve, 2006. Compositions
"The Love Suite in Mahogany," 1993."Trilogy," 1995. Sources
Books
The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, The Penguin Group, 1996.
Periodicals
Billboard, April 2, 1994; July 8, 1995.
Chicago Sun-Times, June 12, 1994.
Detroit Free Press, Sept. 24, 1993.
Down Beat, July 1994; August 1994; September 1994; August 1995.
Essence, December 1991.
Los Angeles Times, January 19, 1995.
Metro Times (Detroit, MI), September 2, 1992.
Newsweek, December 12, 1994.
New York Post, April 4, 1994.
New York Times, June 23, 1994; September 7, 1994.
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), February 16, 1994.
San Francisco Chronicle, May 14, 1994.
Star-Ledger, June 5, 1994.
Washington Post, March 4, 1995.
Online
All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (November 12, 2006).
Additional information for this profile was obtained from Verve Records, 1995.
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