Hargrove was the bandleader of the progressive group The RH Factor, which combined elements of jazz, funk, hip-hop, soul, and gospel music. Its members have included Chalmers "Spanky" Alford, Pino Palladino, James Poyser, Jonathan Batiste and Bernard Wright.
Born in Waco, Texas, he took lessons on trumpet and was discovered by Wynton Marsalis when Marsalis visited the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. One of his influences was saxophonist David "Fathead" Newman, who performed in Ray Charles's Band at Hargrove's junior high school.
Hargrove spent one year (1988–1989) studying at Boston's Berklee College of Music but could more often be found in New York City jam sessions. He transferred to the New School in New York. His first recording there was with the saxophonist Bobby Watson. Shortly afterwards he made a recording with Superblue featuring Watson, Mulgrew Miller, and Kenny Washington. In 1990 he released his first solo album, Diamond in the Rough, on the Novus/RCA label. He was commissioned by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and wrote The Love Suite: In Mahogany which premiered in 1993.
In 1994, now contracted to Verve, he recorded With the Tenors of Our Time, with Joe Henderson, Stanley Turrentine, Johnny Griffin, Joshua Redman, and Branford Marsalis. He recorded Family in 1995, then experimented with a trio format on the album Parker's Mood in 1995, with bassist Christian McBride and pianist Stephen Scott.
Hargrove won his first Grammy Award in 1998 for the album Habana with Crisol, the Afro-Cuban band he founded. He won a Grammy Award in 2002 for Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall with co-leaders Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker.
In 2000, Hargrove used a jazz sound with a lot of groove and funk, performing and recording with neo soul singer D'Angelo, resulting in Voodoo. Hargrove also performed the music of Louis Armstrong in Roz Nixon's musical production "Dedicated To Louis Armstrong" as part of the Verizon Jazz Festival. In 2002, he collaborated with D'Angelo and Macy Gray, the Soultronics, and Nile Rodgers, on two tracks for Red Hot & Riot, a compilation album in tribute to the music of afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. He acted as sideman for jazz pianist Shirley Horn and rapper Common on the album Like Water for Chocolate and in 2002 with singer Erykah Badu on Worldwide Underground.
Hargrove passed away on November 2, 2018.
Discography
As leader
1990: Diamond in the Rough (Novus)
1991: Public Eye (Novus)
1992: Tokyo Sessions, Roy Hargrove and Antonio Hart (Novus)
1992: The Vibe (Novus)
1993: Jazz Futures: Live in Concert (Novus)
1993: Of Kindred Souls: The Roy Hargrove Quintet Live (Novus)
1993: Beauty and the Beast – The Jazz Networks (Novus)
1994: Blues 'n Ballads – The Jazz Networks (Novus)
1994: Approaching Standards – compilation of tracks from 4 albums (BMG Music/Jazz Heritage 1995)
1994: With the Tenors of Our Time – The Roy Hargrove Quintet (Verve)
1995: Family (Verve)
1995: Parker's Mood – with Christian McBride (bass), and Stephen Scott (piano) (Verve)
1997: Habana – Roy Hargrove's Crisol (Verve), Latin Jazz Grammy Winner
2000: Moment to Moment – Roy Hargrove with Strings (Verve)
2002: Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall – co-led by Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker (Verve), Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group 2003
2003: Hard Groove – The RH Factor (Verve)
2004: Strength – The RH Factor (EP, Verve)
2006: Distractions – The RH Factor (Verve)
2006: Nothing Serious (Verve)
2008: Earfood – The Roy Hargrove Quintet (EmArcy)
2009: Emergence – The Roy Hargrove Big Band (Groovin' High)
As sideman
1988: Bobby Watson & Horizon – No question about it
1988: Superblue – Superblue (Blue Note)[2]
1989 Manhattan Projects – Dreamboat
1989: Carl Allen & Manhattan Projects – Piccadilly Square
1989: Ricky Ford – Hard Groovin' (Muse)
1990: Ralph Moore – Furthermore
1991 Antonio Hart – For the First Time
1991: Charles Fambrough – The Proper Angle
1991: Jazz futures – Live in concert (Novus)
1991: Sonny Rollins – Here's to the People (Milestone), on "I Wish I Knew" and "Young Roy" only
1992: Jackie McLean – Rhythm of the Earth
1992: Jazz Networks – Beauty And The Beast (BMG)
1992: Danny Gatton, Joshua Redman, Bobby Watson, Franck Amsallem, Charles Fambrough, Yuron Israel – New York Stories (Blue Note)
1993: Bob Thiele Collective – Lion Hearted
1993: Steve Coleman – The Tao of Mad Phat (Novus)
1993: Jazz Networks – Blues 'N Ballads (BMG)
1994: David Sanchez – Sketches of Dreams
1994: Johnny Griffin – Chicago-New york-Paris
1994: Marc Cary – Cary On
1994: Rodney Kendrick – The Secrets of Rodney Kendrick
1995: Shirley Horn – The Main Ingredient (Verve)
1995: Christian McBride – Gettin' to It
1995: Jimmy Smith – Damn!
1996: Jimmy Smith – Angel Eyes: Ballads & Slow Jams
1996: Cedar Walton – Composer (Astor Place]])
1996: Oscar Peterson – Meets Roy Hargrove and Ralph Moore (Telarc), with Ralph Moore, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Lewis Nash
2000: Ray Brown Trio – Some of My Best Friends Are... The Trumpet Players (Telarc)
2000: Erykah Badu – Mama's Gun
2000: D'Angelo – Voodoo
2000: Common – Like Water for Chocolate
2001: Roy Haynes – Birds of a Feather: A Tribute to Charlie Parker
2003: Erykah Badu – Worldwide Underground
2003: Shirley Horn – May the Music Never End (Verve)
2006: Anke Helfrich – Better Times Ahead
2006: John Mayer – Continuum
2006: Steve Davis – Update
2007: Jimmy Cobb Quartet – Cobb's Corner
2007: Randal Corsen – Armonia
2008: John Beasley – Letter to Herbie
2008: Johnny Griffin – Live At Ronnie Scott's
2008: Roy Assaf & Eddy Khaimovich Quartet – Andarta (Origin)
2009: Jimmy Cobb Quartet – Jazz in the Key of Blue, with Russell Malone (guitar) and John Webber (bass)
2010: Marcus Miller with L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo – A Night in Monte Carlo (Dreyfus/Concord Jazz), with Raul Midón
2010: Angelique Kidjo – Õÿö, on "Samba pa ti" only
2011: Cyrille Aimée – Cyrille Aimée & Friends (Live at Smalls)
2011: Roy Haynes – Roy-Alty
2011: Stan Killian – Unified
2014: D'Angelo – Black Messiah
2015: Ameen Saleem – The Grove Lab
2017: Johnny O'Neal – In The Moment
Laura
Roy Hargrove Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Of something that never happened, yet you recall it well
You know the feeling of recognizing someone
That you've never met as far as you could tell, well
Laura is the face in the misty light
Footsteps that you hear down the hall
The laugh that floats on a summer night
And you see Laura on the train that is passing through
Those eyes, how familiar they seem
She gave your very first kiss to you
That was Laura but she's only a dream
The song "Laura" by Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, and Stephen Scott seems to describe the feeling of nostalgia and the fleeting nature of memories. The first verse suggests that there are certain things in life that we almost remember, but not really. Memories that seem familiar, yet as if they never truly happened. The second verse describes the experience of recognizing someone you've never met before. This could refer to a feeling of recognizing a kindred spirit or a feeling of deja vu.
The chorus of the song describes Laura as a sort of ephemeral, ghostly figure. She is the "face in the misty light" or the laugh that "floats on a summer night." She is the footsteps in the hallway that you can never quite place. The lyrics suggest that Laura is a dream or a memory that is just out of reach. The final line of the chorus, "That was Laura but she's only a dream," reinforces the idea that Laura is a fleeting memory that we can never quite grasp.
Overall, the song "Laura" seems to be about the power of nostalgia and the ways in which memories can be elusive. The lyrics suggest that there are certain things in life that we can never quite remember, and that these memories may be as ephemeral as a dream.
Line by Line Meaning
You know the feeling of something half remembered
Feeling like you almost remember something but not quite
Of something that never happened, yet you recall it well
Feeling like something happened to you even though it didn't
You know the feeling of recognizing someone
Feeling like you know someone even if you've never met them before
That you've never met as far as you could tell, well
Feeling like you know someone's face or name without actually meeting them before
Laura is the face in the misty light
Laura is like a memory that is hazy and hard to make out
Footsteps that you hear down the hall
Laura is like the sound of footsteps you can hear but can't see who's making them
The laugh that floats on a summer night
Laura is like the sound of a laugh that's carried on the wind on a summer night
That you can never quite recall
Laura is like a memory that's hard to remember and fades away quickly
And you see Laura on the train that is passing through
Laura is like a fleeting glimpse of someone on a train passing by
Those eyes, how familiar they seem
Laura is like someone you know from somewhere, even if you can't remember where
She gave your very first kiss to you
Laura is like the memory of your first kiss, even though you can't place who it was
That was Laura but she's only a dream
Laura is like a dream that fades away when you wake up
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: David Raksin
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind