Roy Hargrove Releases Emergence – His First Big Band Album – On August 25

Roy Hargrove

Acclaimed trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Roy Hargrove realizes a lifelong dream with the August 25 release of Emergence, his first big band album. Nineteen pieces strong, Hargrove’s ensemble is a vibrant and versatile group, tackling a wide range of material and styles with equal doses of precision and passion.

“Financially speaking, this is probably the worst thing I could ever do,” Hargrove said. “But it is something that needs to be done, spiritually and musically speaking.”

The seeds of Emergence were planted in 1995, when Hargrove first formed a big band for a New York jazz festival. His big band concept grew as he led the evolving group through a series of regular gigs at the Jazz Gallery, a not-for-profit performance space in lower Manhattan – which proved an invaluable for both Hargrove and the musicians who participated.

Since his own emergence in the late ’80s, Hargrove has proved to be an adventurous and wide-ranging artist, proudly immersed in the jazz tradition and yet continually striking out for new terrain. Among his groups include the straight-ahead, hard-bop Roy Hargrove Quintet and Crisol, an Afro-Cuban ensemble that won a Grammy in 1998 for Best Latin Jazz Performance with its album Habana. With the funk-oriented RH Factor, Hargrove released the 2003 album Hard Groove, featuring guest appearances by R&B superstars Erykah Badu, Common and D’Angelo. His last album, 2008′s quintet session Earfood, was featured in dozens of year-end Top 10 lists.

Hargrove’s big band, which cites the large bands of Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Maynard Ferguson and Gerald Wilson as key influences, has already been showcased at the Hollywood Bowl and SummerStage in New York’s Central Park. Stylistically, the music ranges from furious swingers to majestic ballads to rollicking Latin jams.

Currently, Roy Hargrove does not have any tour dates.