January 18, 2006 @ 9:36 pm

Hip Hop Jazz Head Headlines in Barbados

by: Jamie Katz

An appreciative mixed crowd of locals and tourists downed their rum punch and munched on fried filets of flying fish at the historic Sunbury Plantation House--one of several venues for the festival, which featured Jill Scott and Lionel Richie later in the week--as Hargrove romped through an hourlong set. His material included Herbie Hancock's hard bop classic "The Maze," Cedar Walton's "I'm Not So Sure," Hargrove's own "Trust," the standard "Fools Rush In," and a fiery Latin jazz composition, "Nothing Serious," arranged by pianist Ronnie Matthews, which featured a thunderous, polyrhythmic Afro-Cuban drum solo by Taru Alexander. Bass support from John Lee was solid, and the stellar alto saxophonist Justin Robinson swooped and soared as impressively as Hargrove on nearly every tune. Italian vocalist Roberta Gambarini competently performed a suite of jazz standards in the opening set, backed by Hargrove's rhythm section, which admirably lowered the volume to accompany her more demure stylings. At one point, she scatted through vintage solos by Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sonny Stitt; at another, she fashioned a kind of hand kazoo to turn her vocalese stylings into a trumpet-like improv. right But Hargrove's finale upped the artistic ante. Wiry, stylish (in a black jacket, white straw porkpie hat, untucked white dress shirt with orange tie and white pants), he steps to the mic like a boxer ready to bob and weave. And he delivers fresh music that's at once bold and thoughtful. There is no doubt that his individual voice has matured greatly since he burst on the scene in the late '80s. And though he has long since established himself as one of the premier trumpeters of mainstream jazz, Hargrove has also proved artistically adventurous. He has recorded hip hop and R&B flavored tracks with Erykah Badu (who studied with him at Dallas's prestigious Booker T. Washington School for Visual and Performing Arts, as did Norah Jones), D'Angelo, Common, and Q-Tip, as well as surprisingly beautiful pop/jazz sides with orchestra and strings. And then there was his Grammy-winning Afro-Cuban album, Habana, in 1996. In May, Verve Records will release two CDs of new material--one straight-up jazz, one R&B with his funkified alter-ego band, RH Factor. For a still-young artist, he's covered a lot of territory. That Hargrove's heart remains close to hip hop and R&B became clear when he learned, to his surprise, that VIBE was in the house. "I always read VIBE," he said. "That's just like a staple, you know?" When we asked what he's listening to nowadays, Hargrove whipped out his iPod Nano and shared his playlist. "Billy Eckstine, Outkast, Donny Hathaway," he said, scrolling down. "D'Angelo, Fats Navarro --can't leave out Fats Navarro-- Common, Bud Powell, Biggie Smalls, Theodore Unit--Staten Island, yo!--Jackie McLean..." He keeps it on shuffle all the time. Photo: Lem Peterkin/Courtesy of Webb Internet Radio Read more vibe.com reviews.

Article tags: Roy Hargrove