Roy Hargrove, born in 1969 in
Waco, Texas,
has gone from a
child prodigy to
become an established young
jazz trumpeter, with several albums as a leader
under his belt. Something about his early albums (the ones I've heard, that is) leaves me
a bit unsatisfied, having expected something explosive to happen. However there is no doubt that the talent is there.
I should check out his more recent albums;
Parker's Mood
looks like it could be good.
Hargrove was discovered by Wynton
Marsalis when the latter came to visit the former's
high school. He attended Boston's famous Berklee School of Music and very quickly was releasing albums as a
leader. He also was a sideman on albums headlined by
some pretty weighty names: e.g. Sonny Rollins,
James Clay, Frank Morgan, and Jackie McLean.
His online biography sites one of Roy's biggest influences
to be solos by
saxophone player David "Fathead" Newman who was playing
with the Ray Charles Band at Roy's junior high school.
Man, now that's a pretty wicked school assembly. The
coolest thing at my school was when someone's dad from
AT&T came to show us a superconducting magnet.
Oh yeah, he won a Grammy Award in 1998 for his album
Habana with his Afro-Cuban band, Crisol. But we all know what a Grammy
is worth.