ROY HARGROVE

BERN

Time Traveler Recordings

Roy Hargrove, trumpet/flugelhorn/composer; Larry Willis, piano; Gerald Cannon, bass; Willie Jones III, drums; Sherman Irby, alto saxophone.

When Roy Hargrove burst onto the New York jazz scene, he made an assertive impression on his fellow musicians and the jazz community as a young lion with a big, beautiful roar.

Meet Roy Hargrove! This previously unreleased material, played by a 30-year-old trumpet master just ten years into his blossoming career, was recorded during an appearance at the International Jazz Festival in Bern, Switzerland on May 4, 2000.

The tune “Stranded” opens this performance with a big bang!  This is Straight Ahead jazz at its very best.  Energy spits from my CD player like electrical sparks.  This music sets my listening room aflame. Willie Jones III pushes the group with power sticks and shows off his drum skills during a crazy, exciting solo. Sherman Irby’s alto saxophone steps up after Roy Hargroves exceptional trumpet solo and blows my mind.  The audience applause says it all! Larry Willis is amazing at the piano with his solo spontaneous and combustible.  Gerald Cannon’s bass holds the excitement together, sticking like glue to the Jones rhythms and the Hargrove energy.

During his brief, but illustrious career, Roy Hargrove embraced many genres, reigning supreme in each dynamic adventure from post-bop recordings as a leader, to his pioneering Latin Jazz/Afro Cuban ensembles.  He approached his venture into neo-soul and hip-hop with the same bright energy, recording with fellow Texan, poet, vocalist and songwriter, Erykah Badu, as well as working with the very popular R&B and hip-hop artist, D’Angelo on his recording “Voodoo.”

In the late 1960s he recorded with D’Angelo some rather Avant-garde funk music that tickled the edge of hip-hop and was infused with jazz licks.  Hargrove always was a jazz musician first and foremost.

Hargrove’s original composition “Depth” is melodic and once again, swings steady like a pendulum. That strong, no-nonsense bass line that Gerald Cannon walks beneath the excitement is purposeful.  A third of the way into the song, they switch up the mood and change the tempo, following Irby’s saxophone solo. When Hargrove steps back onto center stage, they are back to the swing and the excitement he always insists upon.

”We played basically six nights a week for a year,” recalls Irby.

This is an album full of imagination and genius. The quintet members are comfortable with each other. You can feel that camaraderie. The tenderness that I hear on “Never Let Me Go” takes my breath away as Hargrove gives every drop of emotion he has into his presentation.  You can be assured, be it a ballad, a swing number, or a straight-ahead, up-tempo number, the trumpeter will give us one-hundred percent. I also loved the Willis piano solo, soaked in the blues one moment, then tinkling the upper register keys the next, in a flurry of emotion. When Cannon sings the melody on his double bass, it’s pure, unadulterated magic.

“To this day, it was the best musical situation I’ve ever been a part of,” says Willie Jones III in the eight-page booklet that’s included in the compact disc package. “…It’s not about being cocky.  It’s just that we played every night.  We knew what we had. We knew what we were bringing.  We also knew that there are hardly any other bands playing in that style, bringing that type of fire.”

We get to hear Roy Hargrove and his magnificent group of musicians at their very best on this live recording from Bern, Switzerland. It’s a moment in time, never to be forgotten!

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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