IthacaMatt
Old Timer / Unofficial Contributor for 25+ years
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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Not enough people know it, but this man was the "Best Trumpeter of the Last 40 Years". There are only about 5 guys who can match him in all of jazz history, in my book, in terms of how melodic he played, and how tight and funky he was.
Back in the 1980s, I used to work for RCA Records as a Contract Manager. I was in charge of managing the jazz roster for label head Steve Backer. I reviewed song and album deliveries to make sure they met the contract requirements, and then would authorize payments to the artist. I would also go back and research old recording contracts to determine whether we could reissue old recordings on compact disk, back when CD's were the "new" technology. I was involved in the approvals and contractual research for some of RCA Records' first CD boxed sets, like the legendary ones they did for Duke Ellington and Jefferson Airplane.
Anyway, back in those days there was a whole "new classic jazz" movement that had sort of been started by Wynton Marsalis. Steve Backer signed all the best young jazz talent who were revisiting the classic style of the 1950s, and bringing something new to this wonderful art form. The undisputed "King" of all these Young Lions of Jazz was Roy Hargrove. I was one of the first people to hear his debut album, "Diamond in the Rough", recorded shortly after Wynton Marsalis had discovered Roy at his high school in Dallas, Texas.
Steve Backer's "Novus" label signed the very best of this young generation of jazz traditionalists, including Marcus Roberts, the blind piano genius from Wynton's band, bass player Christian McBride (known to many from cameo appearances on Sting's albums), along with more established artists like Hilton Ruiz, James Moody and Henry Threadgill. I learned so much about jazz, and was at Carnegie Hall for the famous Carnegie Hall concert that was the 25th Anniversary of Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall's jazz classic, "The Bridge", which was Sonny's comeback album - a series of melodies he came up with while he had dropped out of the music scene at the end of the 1950s, and would just play like a busker on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Well, RCA Records had been Sonny Rollins' label way back then in the early 1960s, with producers like the legendary Rudy Van Gelder, and those old recordings were remastered by Orrin Keepnews for RCA when I was working there. Anyway, at the Carnegie Hall concert to mark the 25th Anniversary of The Bridge by Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall (on electric guitar), Roy Hargrove was the opening act, and it was his first really big public performance.
I was given a pair of tickets and brought my father-in-law, Saul, who had been a big jazz fan as a young man, and particularly liked Latin Jazz and Be-Bop from the late 1940s and early 1950s - music by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, with Cuban musicians like Machito, Chano Pozo and Tito Puente adding a scintillating beat. This was the music of the mambo.
So I brought Saul with me, and we're sitting on the aisle in Carnegie Hall, and Steve Backer is bringing the legendary jazz critic from those days, Leonard Feather, down the aisle, holding the older gentleman's arm as he escorted him to his seat. To my great surprise, Steve stops to introduce Mr. Feather to me and my father in law. Saul, of course, completely knew who Leonard Feather was - the editor of Metronome jazz magazine. Leonard Feather was a Jewish music critic from England who had been a musician himself, which is probably how he caught Saulie's attention, and literally taught him about jazz. My father in law never forgot that moment, and it made him very proud.
Sonny Rollins came on at the end of Roy's opening set to play "Valse Hot" with Roy (which he later recorded with Branford Marsalis on "Tenors of our Time"), which was smokin'! Roy, frankly, stole the song. And then at the end of Rollins' set with Jim Hall, Sonny debuted a new song he had written for Hargrove, called "Young Roy". Roy, of course, came out and took a solo, and blew the roof off the place. One of the best memories of my life.
Here's a clip of Roy Hargrove playing one of his best numbers from recent years, called "Strasbourg / St. Denis". Enjoy!
Roy Hargrove - Strasbourg / St. Denis
Back in the 1980s, I used to work for RCA Records as a Contract Manager. I was in charge of managing the jazz roster for label head Steve Backer. I reviewed song and album deliveries to make sure they met the contract requirements, and then would authorize payments to the artist. I would also go back and research old recording contracts to determine whether we could reissue old recordings on compact disk, back when CD's were the "new" technology. I was involved in the approvals and contractual research for some of RCA Records' first CD boxed sets, like the legendary ones they did for Duke Ellington and Jefferson Airplane.
Anyway, back in those days there was a whole "new classic jazz" movement that had sort of been started by Wynton Marsalis. Steve Backer signed all the best young jazz talent who were revisiting the classic style of the 1950s, and bringing something new to this wonderful art form. The undisputed "King" of all these Young Lions of Jazz was Roy Hargrove. I was one of the first people to hear his debut album, "Diamond in the Rough", recorded shortly after Wynton Marsalis had discovered Roy at his high school in Dallas, Texas.
Steve Backer's "Novus" label signed the very best of this young generation of jazz traditionalists, including Marcus Roberts, the blind piano genius from Wynton's band, bass player Christian McBride (known to many from cameo appearances on Sting's albums), along with more established artists like Hilton Ruiz, James Moody and Henry Threadgill. I learned so much about jazz, and was at Carnegie Hall for the famous Carnegie Hall concert that was the 25th Anniversary of Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall's jazz classic, "The Bridge", which was Sonny's comeback album - a series of melodies he came up with while he had dropped out of the music scene at the end of the 1950s, and would just play like a busker on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Well, RCA Records had been Sonny Rollins' label way back then in the early 1960s, with producers like the legendary Rudy Van Gelder, and those old recordings were remastered by Orrin Keepnews for RCA when I was working there. Anyway, at the Carnegie Hall concert to mark the 25th Anniversary of The Bridge by Sonny Rollins and Jim Hall (on electric guitar), Roy Hargrove was the opening act, and it was his first really big public performance.
I was given a pair of tickets and brought my father-in-law, Saul, who had been a big jazz fan as a young man, and particularly liked Latin Jazz and Be-Bop from the late 1940s and early 1950s - music by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, with Cuban musicians like Machito, Chano Pozo and Tito Puente adding a scintillating beat. This was the music of the mambo.
So I brought Saul with me, and we're sitting on the aisle in Carnegie Hall, and Steve Backer is bringing the legendary jazz critic from those days, Leonard Feather, down the aisle, holding the older gentleman's arm as he escorted him to his seat. To my great surprise, Steve stops to introduce Mr. Feather to me and my father in law. Saul, of course, completely knew who Leonard Feather was - the editor of Metronome jazz magazine. Leonard Feather was a Jewish music critic from England who had been a musician himself, which is probably how he caught Saulie's attention, and literally taught him about jazz. My father in law never forgot that moment, and it made him very proud.
Sonny Rollins came on at the end of Roy's opening set to play "Valse Hot" with Roy (which he later recorded with Branford Marsalis on "Tenors of our Time"), which was smokin'! Roy, frankly, stole the song. And then at the end of Rollins' set with Jim Hall, Sonny debuted a new song he had written for Hargrove, called "Young Roy". Roy, of course, came out and took a solo, and blew the roof off the place. One of the best memories of my life.
Here's a clip of Roy Hargrove playing one of his best numbers from recent years, called "Strasbourg / St. Denis". Enjoy!
Roy Hargrove - Strasbourg / St. Denis
