The intersection of soul and jazz is often a magical, musically-satisfying place. Especially when, horn in hand, the great Roy Hargrove is standing on that corner.
Hargrove, a two-time Grammy winner who is widely acclaimed as one of the premier jazz trumpet players of his generation, is a musician of wide tastes with a special gift for composition and melody. Although he has always kept at least one foot firmly planted in jazz, Hargrove’s career has been one of exciting exploration, ranging from his collaborations with other jazz virtuosos like Branford Marsalis and Christian McBride to his sideman roles for D’Angelo and Erykah Badu and to his leadership of The RH Factor, a delightfully free-form group blending the best of soul, jazz and funk idioms.
The intersection of soul and jazz is often a magical, musically-satisfying place. Especially when, horn in hand, the great Roy Hargrove is standing on that corner.
Hargrove, a two-time Grammy winner who is widely acclaimed as one of the premier jazz trumpet players of his generation, is a musician of wide tastes with a special gift for composition and melody. Although he has always kept at least one foot firmly planted in jazz, Hargrove’s career has been one of exciting exploration, ranging from his collaborations with other jazz virtuosos like Branford Marsalis and Christian McBride to his sideman roles for D’Angelo and Erykah Badu and to his leadership of The RH Factor, a delightfully free-form group blending the best of soul, jazz and funk idioms.
In 2003, The RH Factor released its debut album, Hard Groove, a 14-track set anchored by Hargrove’s compelling horn improvisations and featuring a who’s who of neo-soul vocalists and spoken-word artists. We feature here from that album “Forget Regret,” a funky slice of progressive soul with a just-right lead vocal from Stephanie McKay. Enjoy.
By Robb Patryk
Listen to this track, and all others in this series, on the Flashback Soul playlist at Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/user/robb.patryk/playlist/1DDb0sGAD1uAhVVACKWq7M