1. Roy Anthony Hargrove was an American jazz musician and composer whose principal instruments were the trumpet and flugelhorn.
23 Facts About Roy Hargrove
1. 2.
Roy Hargrove achieved critical acclaim after winning two Grammy Awards for differing styles of jazz in 1998 and 2002.
3.
Roy Hargrove took lessons at school initially on cornet before turning to trumpet.
4.
One of Roy Hargrove's most profound early influences was a visit to his junior high school by saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman, who performed as a sideman in Ray Charles's Band.
5.
Roy Hargrove was discovered by Wynton Marsalis when Marsalis visited the Booker T Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas.
6.
Roy Hargrove credited trumpeter Freddie Hubbard as having the greatest influence on his sound.
7.
Roy Hargrove continued his musical studies at Boston's Berklee College of Music, but soon transferred to The New School in New York, enabling Roy Hargrove to frequent the Greenwich Village jazz clubs and participate in jam-sessions, most notably at Bradley's, where he played alongside many of his mentors and heroes.
8.
Shortly thereafter, Roy Hargrove recorded with the band Superblue featuring Watson, Mulgrew Miller, Frank Lacy, Don Sickler and Kenny Washington.
9.
In 1994, Roy Hargrove signed with Verve and recorded With the Tenors of Our Time featuring Joe Henderson, Stanley Turrentine, Johnny Griffin, Joshua Redman, and Branford Marsalis.
10.
Roy Hargrove added jazz and funk-influenced horns to D'Angelo's Grammy-winning album Voodoo and supported D'Angelo on tour as a member of the Soultronics, a backing "supergroup" featuring Questlove and Pino Palladino, among others.
11.
That same year, as part of the Soulquarians collective, Roy Hargrove contributed horn performances for recordings by Common and Erykah Badu.
12.
In 2002, Roy Hargrove won his second Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall with co-leaders Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker.
13.
Roy Hargrove was nominated for four other Grammy Awards during his career.
14.
In 2010, Roy Hargrove released "Live at the New Morning," a DVD of an intimate club performance with his quintet in Paris.
15.
In July 2021, Roy Hargrove's estate released posthumously via Resonance Records the double-album In Harmony, a live duet recording made in 2006 and 2007 with pianist Mulgrew Miller that returned Roy Hargrove to the Top 5 of the Billboard jazz chart.
16.
Roy Hargrove was posthumously elected to the DownBeat Magazine "Jazz Hall of Fame" in November 2021.
17.
In June 2022, the documentary Roy Hargrove, filmed during the final year of his life, debuted at the Tribeca Festival.
18.
Roy Hargrove's estate issued a statement objecting to the film as not what he had envisioned when agreeing to participate.
19.
Roy Hargrove topped the trumpet category in the 2019 DownBeat Readers' Poll.
20.
Over his 30-year career, Roy Hargrove composed and recorded several original compositions, one of which, "Strasbourg-St Denis", has been characterized as reaching the status of a jazz standard.
21.
Roy Hargrove died at the age of 49 of cardiac arrest brought on by a kidney disease on November 2,2018, while hospitalized in New Jersey.
22.
Roy Hargrove is survived by his wife, Aida Brandes-Hargrove, and daughter, Kamala Hargrove, who in 2020 launched the company Roy Hargrove Legacy LLC to preserve and extend his legacy.
23.
In 2022, Roy Hargrove Legacy re-launched the Roy Hargrove Big Band, which gives live performances featuring original band members and other musicians who supported Hargrove in his various ensembles.