About

With his bold tone, swaggering solos, and deep grasp of the jazz tradition, trumpeter Roy Hargrove emerged as one of the most influential and immediately recognizable jazz musicians of his generation. Building upon the influence of players like Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, and his mentor Wynton Marsalis, Hargrove turned heads in the late 1980s and early '90s with his hard-swinging take on acoustic bop, as showcased on albums like 1990's Public Eye and 1995's Family. He earned accolades, taking home a Grammy Award for his ambitious Afro-Cuban album Habana, and playing alongside veteran legends like Sonny Rollins, Shirley Horn, Jimmy Smith, and others. While never eschewing his jazz roots, he branched out, forming his funk and hip-hop outfit the RH Factor, and collaborating on a wide-ranging mix of projects with artists like D'Angelo, Common, John Mayer, Erykah Badu, and the 1975. Prior to his too-early death in 2018 at age 49, Hargrove released a series of highly regarded acoustic albums, including the 2008 quintet date Earfood and the 2009 big-band album Emergence. In 2021, he posthumously reached the Top Five of the jazz albums chart with In Harmony, a duo album with pianist Mulgrew Miller.

In early 1998, fresh off their GRAMMY win for Best Latin Jazz Performance for their debut album Habana, Roy Hargrove and his incandescent group of musicians headed back into the studio to capture lightning in a bottle. Until now that recording, Grande-Terre, has never been heard. Showcasing Hargrove’s red-hot playing, his superlative writing and the band’s powerful singular sound, Roy Hargrove’s Crisol: Grand-Terre was released worldwide on October 18th, two days after what would have been Roy’s 55th birthday.

Roy Hargrove was widely praised for his compositions and abilities on the trumpet and flugelhorn and The New York Times called him “…the most impactful trumpeter of his generation.” Grand-Terre succinctly exhibits this talent alongside his “Crisol” or melting pot of long-time collaborators. This all-star group of Cuban, American and Guadeloupian musicians was the foundation to Hargrove’s unparalleled approach to jazz and the mélange of musical genres that appear on the record. This unique blending of jazz, afro-Cuban rhythms, soul, bop, and funk influenced a generation of jazz, hip hop and neo-soul musicians. From Kamasi Washington and Robert Glasper to D’Angelo, Erykah Badu and Questlove, all these artists—who are now household names—have been shaped by Roy Hargrove’s music and what he cooked up in the studio. — via Label

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Label: Verve Records
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Stereo
Released: 2024
Genre: Jazz
Style: Contemporary Jazz, Post Bop

File under: Jazz - Trumpet
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