Happy Birthday Greetings Roy Anthony Hargrove
🍾Roy Anthony Hargrove was born October 16, 1969 in Waco, Texas. This two time Grammy Award winning jazz trumpeter was discovered by Wynton Marsalis when Marsalis visited the Booker T. Washington School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. For one year (1988-89) Roy attended Berklee College of Music in Boston before transferring to the New School in NYC — New York City was where he was usually found playing in jam sessions.
Roy first recorded with saxophonist Bobby Watson. In 1990, he recorded his first solo album, Diamond in the Rough. Under his leadership at The Jazz Network, 5 albums were released heralding other jazz notables Joshua Redman and Antonio Hart. Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in 1993 commissioned Roy to write The Love Suite: In Mahogany.
Hargrove did not limit himself to any one genre of music. He loved it all and contributed greatly to the neo-soul movement collaborating with D’Angelo on Voodoo, Erykah Badu on Mama’s Gun, and rapper Common’s Like Water for Chocolate. In 1998, Habana garnered Hargrove his first Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album. Roy recorded Habana with his Afro-Cuban band, Crisol. A second Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album entitled Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall was awarded to him in 2002. Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker were his co-leaders on the album.
Roys’s music and influence will live forever through the many lives he has touched in nearly every category of song. Ambrose Akinmusire, a fellow trumpeter, once tweeted, “I don’t think I would be alive if I hadn’t met (Roy Hargrove) when I did. I am extremely grateful I got to tell him that as a grown man to his face.” Reaching Out and Spreading the Good Sounds At Lincoln Center Roy Hargrove feat. by WDR BIG BAND – Hargrove Grooves | Full Concert
Jalylah Burrell Brooklyn, NY, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons