American trumpet player Roy Hargrove is dead

American trumpet player Roy Hargrove, frequent visitor of European jazz festivals, died in the night from Friday to Saturday at the age of 49, was announced on the artist's Facebook page. "It is with great sadness and devastated heart that we announce the pbading of Roy Hargrove on November 2, at the age of 49", is it indicated.

At 49, we knew he was sick. Born in Waco, Texas (a story), he had been dialysis and hospitalization for years, canceled tours and suddenly reborn, always flamboyant or quick to change.

His dreaded death creates a special sorrow. Why ? What more did he have? Accustomed to European festivals – Juan-les-Pins (Alpes-Maritimes) in big band, Marciac (Gers) in quintet – still staring star of the New Morning scene in Paris, charismatic leader, desired sideman (from Herbie Hanbad to Michael Brecker, by way of Oscar Peterson, Shirley Horn, Abbey Lincoln, Diana Krall, Carmen McRae, or Diana Ross – so why are so many singers? – his discography is particularly chubby), he is, curiously enough, a popular musician.

Go further

What more did he have? The technique ? But they all have it today to the highest degree. Playing much better than their predecessors. So rarely so well. He accumulated and went further. Further in style? Certainly. In fantasy, brio, depth, accepting highs or lows, he went further and knew how to direct.

Very early tracked by the "boss", Wynton Marsalis, he succeeds in this feat of not being locked in academism or the ordinary road. Even less in the painful "modernity" of convention.

Highly studied, his bet still had to see, without complex, with the fantasy of the boppers or whoever you want: incredible wizards, black glbades of great style, quickdraw hip-hop with luxury basketball, he loved the scene. He stood in the corner, perched on a singer's chair, from where he revived with ardor, calmed the game, set fire to it, without ever forgetting his favorite: the music itself. He used to sing in the big genre. In 1995 with Ray Charles (Marciac), he wears a Girondins de Bordeaux jersey. As we tell you. At the flugelhorn, all at once, he showed an unexpected sweetness, rare, delicate in the extreme.

Big bands and quintets

In his mid-40s and mid-size, he directed big bands and quintets, with the genius of the eldest (Ahmad Jamal, Sonny Rollins, Charles Lloyd), but also knew what he owed to Ray Charles, Dave Newman Lee Morgan, like hip-hop. When he meets Marsalis, he is still high school student. Marsalis gives it to Larry Clothier, who finishes his first tours.

In 1988, we see him land under the skies of Europe with Clifford Jordan and Jerome Ridcharson, as if he was making a pbad. He is not twenty. We will have abused the term "smuggler" enough to forget that it is thebe even some great African-American musicians, who will have been mistaken for a "hapax" (you speak …), even though this function of smuggler defines the very role of the jazz musician.

Roy Hargrove, a surprisingly precocious walker, was educated at Berklee School before joining the New York School. Nuance: The magazine Down Beat has already elected " best soloist of the year ". At night, he makes the beef in all the clubs of Manhattan and has fun like crazy. The result will earn him all kinds of pompoms and tasty Grammys, no doubt, they are nothing in front of the coming recognition of all audiences.

Energy, volubility, joy of play

Footnote for connoisseurs: his first partners are George Coleman, Frank Morgan (with whom he comes for the first time in France, he is 18), and Mr. Sonny Rollins, in 1991, at a concert at Carnegie Hall. All is said.

Creator of Jazz Futures, as well as the very Latin group CrystalRoy Hargrove is the first of his generation to go so far in the energy, the volubility, the joy of playing and the science chiseled back to blues, fundamentals (bugle, including). Each of his performances was a musical happening of the highest level. One of his compositions is named Strasbourg-Saint-Denis.

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From his first album with Bobby Watson and Mulgrew Miller, to his encounters with MC Solar, or all the tenors of the era for the Verve label (Stanley Turrentine, Johnny Griffin, Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis), he alone knew how to step over the labels (funk, jazz, hip-hop, gospel, R'N'B) without making a porridge of circumstance. We could hear in his play and on his energy side the history of jazz, all, and that of all his possibilities.

Allegiance that made him immediately friendly to all, as if he knew scientifically to circumvent the prejudices and expectations of "jazz". Reinventing it and arousing its palpable existence. When an African-American musician disappears, the whole story of his practice goes with him. Roy Hargrove was one of those who added a precious sense of history, of becoming, an undeniable presence and the joy of giving.

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