By Sean Yoes, Baltimore AFRO Editor, syoes@afro.com
Roy Hargrove, one of the great young lions of the jazz world has died. He was 49. Hargrove, a Grammy-award winning trumpeter died of cardiac arrest according to a report in Rolling Stone magazine. He had recently been admitted into a New York City hospital with kidney issues.
Hargrove performed with jazz gods like Sonny Rollins, Stanley Turentine, David “Fathead” Newman, Herbie Hancock, Wynton and Branford Marsalis. But, he seamlessly also collaborated with R&B and Pop stars. Hargrove worked on Erykah Badu’s critically acclaimed album Mama’s Gun in 2000, as well as her 2003 album Weather Underground. He also contributed to D’Angelo’s 2000 album Voodoo, as well as his 2014 offering Black Messiah.
Grammy-award winning trumpeter Roy Hargrove. (Courtesy Photo)
“The Great Roy Hargrove. He is literally the one man horn section I hear in my head when I think about music,” wrote Questlove of the legendary Hip-Hop band, the Roots, on Instagram. “And a beautiful cat man. Love to the immortal timeless genius that will forever be Roy Hargrove ya’ll,” Questlove added.
Hargrove, a native of Waco, Texas, was discovered by Wynton Marsalis when Marsalis toured the state in 1987, when Hargrove was a high school senior.
As a bandleader, Hargrove won two Grammys. The first came in 1998 when he won Best Latin Jazz Album for Habana. In 2002, he won Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall, a collaboration with Hancock and Michael Brecker.
