Roy Hargrove, a Texan, was discovered by Wynton Marsalis during his high school years.
He attended the Berklee College of Music for a year and moved to New York and enrolled in the New School.
His first recording was in 1988 as a sideman with Bobby Watson's band on the "No Question About It" album. The first record he made was called "Diamond in the Rough" and came out in 1990.
Apart from his true jazz roots, he recorded with many respectable soul artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Anjelique Kidjo and rapper Common.
Roy Hargrove Quintet - "Strasbourg/St. Denis" - Live in Paris
His band the RH Factor was an influential band combining two worlds, jazz and R&B/HipHop.
RH Factor blends a core band of two sax players, three keyboard players, two bassists and drummers, and two guitarists (including legendary soul session ace Cornell Dupree) with the best and brightest from the soul and R&B 'new schools' including D'Angelo, Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello, Steve Coleman, Karl Denson, Marc Cary, and two hip-hop MCs: Common and Q-Tip.
The RH Factor feat. Erykah Badu & Meshell Ndegeocello
Hargrove made more than 20 records as a band leader and even more than that with other distinguished musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Antonio Hart, Sonny Rollins, Steve Coleman and Oscar Peterson just to name a few.
I believe Roy Hargrove was an artist who had tried to spread the jazz (or a newer version of jazz merged with soul music) to wider audiences. He was a leading figure in the neo-soul movement during the first decade of the new millennium. But above all he was a true jazz man whom I often compare with Miles Davis; not personally, not musically but with his adaptability and enthusiasm to create new forms and always stay ahead of the curve...
"Nothing Serious"
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