Hargrove, Roy Anthony

Hargrove, Roy Anthony, 1969–2018, American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer, b. Waco, Tex. In 1986, while in high school, he attracted the attention of Wynton Marsalis, who asked him to sit in with his band. After studying at the Berklee College of Music, Boston (1988–89), he moved to New York, formed a quintet, and began recording. A lyrical improviser and leading interpreter of bebop and blues, Hargrove performed with Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, and other jazz greats. He premiered his first extended composition, The Love Suite in Mahogany (1993) at Lincoln Center. In 1996 he formed Crisol, an Afro-Cuban band, then released Habana (1997), which won a Grammy award. His second Grammy was for Directions in Music (2002), with Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker. With his RH Factor band, introduced in London in 2003, he interwove soul, bebop, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, and funk, influences that also informed his quintet on Earfood (2008).

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