Hargrove, man. Roy Hargrove.
He came exploding into the jazz world back in the nineties. He was one of the Young Lions of the nineties jazz renaissance. One of the brightest trumpet lights of the day. Genius. The story goes that he was discovered by Wynton Marsalis at Booker T. Washington School for the Performing Arts in Dallas, Texas.
His solos possessed fire. He wrote layered works and put together big bands and quintets. He played bop, mambo, r&b and soul. He was rolling. He won grammys and I got a video cassette recording of him playing with Dave Brubeck, Joshua Redman, and Christian McBride at the Grammy Ceremonies in 1993...and I just found a youtube clip of that performance...guess there's others out there who were recording that night!
Then I lost track of him. The 'aughts came and I got busy and Hargrove fell off my map. I still listened to his old stuff but I didn't even know if he was still around.
He's still around but he's had a rough road. A couple of years ago he got busted for possession. He's had to cancel shows for health reasons. I follow the guy on Facebook and Instagram and he looks a shell of himself. I mean we all look older but it looks like he's had a tough go of it. His music still sounds good and I hope he's getting better. I hope he's getting things back on track. He hasn't released a recording since 2009. He's still touring and I hope he finds or has found his way back from the abyss.
I iTuned two of his albums this week. Earfood...a small group set and Emergence, featuring his big band. Both cuts demonstrate his talent. Emergence blows me away. The chords and the choruses are so thick with power and might.
I hope he can release more to the world. The world can use some bright creativity right now.
