© Andrea Boccalini 
© Pieter M. van Hattem
11 July 2010
Theatre Stage
//
22:30
Roy Hargrove Quintet
(United States)
Roy Hargrove (trumpet), Justin Robinson (alto saxophone), Jonathan Batiste (piano), Ameen Saleem (bass) and Montez Coleman (drums).
Trumpeter Roy Hargrove has firmly established himself as among the premier players in jazz and beyond. Ever-stretching into more challenging and colorful ways to flex his musical chops, Hargrove has left indelible imprints in a vast array of artful settings.
Roy Hargrove was born in Waco, TX on October 16, 1969. Inspired by the gospel music he heard in church on Sundays and the R&B and funk music that played on the radio, Roy began learning the trumpet in the fourth grade. By junior high school, he was playing at an advanced level of proficiency. At 16, he was studying music at Dallas's prestigious Booker T. Washington School for the Visual and Performing Arts. Midway through his junior year, Roy was "discovered" by Wynton Marsalis, who was conducting a jazz clinic at the school. Impressed, Marsalis invited Roy to sit in with his band. From that point, Hargrove’s carrier went in overdrive. Today, his quintet is one of the finest hard-bop jazz bands on the road. In recording sessions, Hargrove is not adverse to experimentation: he's worked in all sorts of group configurations, from trios to big bands.
During his tenure on the Verve label alone, he has recorded an album with a hand-picked collection of the world’s greatest tenor saxophonists (With the Tenors of Our Time), an album of standards with strings (Moment to Moment) and, in 2003, introduced his own hip hop/jazz collective The RH Factor with the groundbreaking CD Hard Groove (swiftly followed by the limited edition EP, Strength). Hargrove has also won Grammy Awards for two vastly different projects. In 1997, Roy’s Cuban-based band Crisol (including piano legend Jesus “Chucho” Valdes and wonder drummer Horatio “El Negro” Hernandez) won the Best Latin Jazz Performance Grammy for the album Habana. And in 2002, Hargrove, Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker won Best Instrumental Jazz Album, Individual or Group, for their three-way collaboration Directions in Music. Hargrove also brought two of his musical worlds closer together with the simultaneous release of Distractions and Nothing Serious – all new recordings by both of Roy Hargrove’s touring ensembles. Distractions features the contemporary funk/jazz sounds of The RH Factor. The 8-song Roy Hargrove Quintet disc Nothing Serious moves from Roy’s breathtaking and sensual Flugelhorn ballad “Trust” and the enveloping warmth of “The Gift” to a fierce waltz time swinger “Salima’s Dance” (from the pen of pianist Ronnie Matthews), a relentlessly winding study in melody from bassist D’Wayne Burno evocatively titled “Devil Eyes,” and a whirl through the magical changes of Branislau Kaper’s “Invitation,” the set’s sole jazz standard.
As a whole, this incarnation of the Roy Hargrove Quintet has been playing together for years, the tightness of which is evident throughout the disc. Earfood and Emergence are two recent releases of the Quintet. Thus Earfood presents a richly coloured snapshot of an artist reaching his prime, a young player once dubbed ubiquitously as the ‘Young Lion’, is now head of The Jazz Pride. He’s nothing left to prove as his current trumpet sound reveals in his total command of tone that’s inflected with subtle emotions and, when needed, pure hard bop power. Yet as he reveals in his liner notes, he now just wants to play tuneful, melodic music, that reaches out to an audience – wherever they are coming from.
When he's on the road touring with his quintet, Roy Hargrove is treating audiences to some of the greatest, hardest-swinging bebop in the world.
Roy Hargrove was born in Waco, TX on October 16, 1969. Inspired by the gospel music he heard in church on Sundays and the R&B and funk music that played on the radio, Roy began learning the trumpet in the fourth grade. By junior high school, he was playing at an advanced level of proficiency. At 16, he was studying music at Dallas's prestigious Booker T. Washington School for the Visual and Performing Arts. Midway through his junior year, Roy was "discovered" by Wynton Marsalis, who was conducting a jazz clinic at the school. Impressed, Marsalis invited Roy to sit in with his band. From that point, Hargrove’s carrier went in overdrive. Today, his quintet is one of the finest hard-bop jazz bands on the road. In recording sessions, Hargrove is not adverse to experimentation: he's worked in all sorts of group configurations, from trios to big bands.
During his tenure on the Verve label alone, he has recorded an album with a hand-picked collection of the world’s greatest tenor saxophonists (With the Tenors of Our Time), an album of standards with strings (Moment to Moment) and, in 2003, introduced his own hip hop/jazz collective The RH Factor with the groundbreaking CD Hard Groove (swiftly followed by the limited edition EP, Strength). Hargrove has also won Grammy Awards for two vastly different projects. In 1997, Roy’s Cuban-based band Crisol (including piano legend Jesus “Chucho” Valdes and wonder drummer Horatio “El Negro” Hernandez) won the Best Latin Jazz Performance Grammy for the album Habana. And in 2002, Hargrove, Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker won Best Instrumental Jazz Album, Individual or Group, for their three-way collaboration Directions in Music. Hargrove also brought two of his musical worlds closer together with the simultaneous release of Distractions and Nothing Serious – all new recordings by both of Roy Hargrove’s touring ensembles. Distractions features the contemporary funk/jazz sounds of The RH Factor. The 8-song Roy Hargrove Quintet disc Nothing Serious moves from Roy’s breathtaking and sensual Flugelhorn ballad “Trust” and the enveloping warmth of “The Gift” to a fierce waltz time swinger “Salima’s Dance” (from the pen of pianist Ronnie Matthews), a relentlessly winding study in melody from bassist D’Wayne Burno evocatively titled “Devil Eyes,” and a whirl through the magical changes of Branislau Kaper’s “Invitation,” the set’s sole jazz standard.
As a whole, this incarnation of the Roy Hargrove Quintet has been playing together for years, the tightness of which is evident throughout the disc. Earfood and Emergence are two recent releases of the Quintet. Thus Earfood presents a richly coloured snapshot of an artist reaching his prime, a young player once dubbed ubiquitously as the ‘Young Lion’, is now head of The Jazz Pride. He’s nothing left to prove as his current trumpet sound reveals in his total command of tone that’s inflected with subtle emotions and, when needed, pure hard bop power. Yet as he reveals in his liner notes, he now just wants to play tuneful, melodic music, that reaches out to an audience – wherever they are coming from.
When he's on the road touring with his quintet, Roy Hargrove is treating audiences to some of the greatest, hardest-swinging bebop in the world.
Press Quotes:
De Standaard.: “..flamboyant trumpet player Roy Hargrove knows how to start a party…”
Cluas: The penultimate slot in this season’s esb jazz series goes to Roy Hargrove, a 32 year old trumpeter from Texas, being called the “hottest trumpet player in the world” by Newsweek magazine.”
NPR: “The quintet led by trumpeter Roy Hargrove is one of the finest hard-bop jazz bands on the road today.”
Cluas: The penultimate slot in this season’s esb jazz series goes to Roy Hargrove, a 32 year old trumpeter from Texas, being called the “hottest trumpet player in the world” by Newsweek magazine.”
NPR: “The quintet led by trumpeter Roy Hargrove is one of the finest hard-bop jazz bands on the road today.”
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