One of the most gifted jazz musicians of his generation, Grammy-award winning trumpeter Roy Hargrove, has died at age 49 after reportedly suffering a cardiac arrest.
Besides recording his own series of acclaimed albums, Hargrove became famous among urban music fans in the early 2000s as a member of the collective the Soulquarians, appearing on essential albums like D'Angelo's Voodoo, Common's Like Water for Chocolate and Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun.
NPR reported that Hargrove, who'd been on dialysis for many years, had been admitted to the hospital for "reasons related to kidney function" at the time of his death. He had been scheduled to perform in New Jersey on Saturday night.
"The Great Roy Hargrove: He is literally the one man horn section I hear in my head when I think about music," wrote Questlove in an Instagram post.
"I know I've spoken (of) every aspect of Soulquarian era recording techniques but even I can't properly document how crucial and spot on Roy was with his craft, man. We NEVER gave him instructions: just played the song and watched him go."
Questlove wrote about how you can hear him and other band members screaming and laughing during a Hargrove solo on the Common track Cold Blooded because "that's us MIND BLOWN... We were just reacting in real time to greatness... And a beautiful cat, man. Love to the immortal timeless genius that will forever be Roy Hargrove, y'all."
Said another key young trumpeter, Keyon Harrold, "My heart again is broken by news of the trumpeter jazz king Roy Hargrove passing on... I was captivated by Roy's soul," Harrold wrote on Instagram.
Hargrove was nominated for six Grammy Awards and won two - the first in 1998 for Habana, an album of Afro-Cuban music he recorded with his band Crisol, and the second in 2002 for Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall, a tribute to Miles Davis and John Coltrane on which he collaborated with Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker.
Christian McBride weighed in on Twitter: "I have no words over the loss of my dear brother of 31 years. We played on a lot of sessions together, travelled a lot of miles together, laughed a lot together, bickered on occasion - and I wouldn't change our relationship for anything in the world. Bless you, Roy Hargrove."
A Texas native, Hargrove was discovered by Wynton Marsalis when that jazz great was visiting his performing arts high school in Dallas. Hargrove always cited as his primary inspiration David "Fathead" Newman, appreciating his improvisational prowess and saying he felt Newman was "was so soulful and singing through his horn." His first solo album, "Diamond in the Rough," appeared in 1990 on Novus, for whom he made eight albums in four years. His career really took off with the 10 albums he recorded for Verve starting in 1994, including several with the RH Factor, a funkier band he formed to meld different styles into jazz.
Australian Associated Press
