Roy Hargrove

Roy Hargrove

Hargrove in a Hard Groove
These days, trumpeter Roy Hargrove speaks R&B as fluently as he does jazz. The former bebop wunderkind has lately been performing with artists including crooners D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, as well as continuing his flourishing jazz career. Hargrove’s various sonic passions meet and mingle on his eclectic Hard Groove. Ted Panken spoke with this multifarious player about bringing his musical worlds together.

Barnes & Noble.com: How did the idea take hold to conceptualize something like this?

Roy Hargrove: I've been trying to do it for a while, actually. But it was a matter of it being the right time. I mean, I've been doing it on my own! I've been doing it the whole time in private, but this is the first time I've sort of brought it out.

B&N.com: You record with Meshell Ndegeocello, D'Angelo, Common, and Q-Tip, but I'm wondering about putting them together on a project of your own. It's ambitious, and they have individual sounds, just like jazz musicians do.

RH: It's really simple, man. It's not a big deal. I wanted to do a record like this, and I knew whom to call. I know a lot of musicians and certainly have played with a lot of musicians -- and different kinds of musicians, too. I just put together a sort of outline of the personnel that I wanted, and also a list of songs I wanted to do. Now, that wasn't etched in stone. Some of the things that happened in the studio were totally spontaneous.

B&N.com: The album sounds almost as if you're going back to before you were a jazz musician.

RH: Mmm-hmm. It's like I'm returning the music of my childhood, what I grew up listening to, what turned me on to becoming a musician in the first place. That's most of the records that my father had, which was really Parliament-Funkadelic, Rolls-Royce, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes -- that kind of music. The '70s. It's kind of already out there right now, that people are gravitating toward doing that music anyway, just like scratching at the surface. So that was just like a perfect open door for me to walk right through.

B&N.com: I realize you get asked this all the time, but do you approach playing hardcore jazz differently than you approach R&B?

RH: No. It's all music, man. You put your best foot forward in any case. That's how I feel. And if you have an understanding of the style that you're dealing with, then you're in. It doesn't feel like a switch to me. It's just kind of, if you're playing with good musicians, whatever it is, it's going to swing.

B&N.com: So it doesn't matter whether you're playing an involved set of bebop changes or elegantly constructed vamps.

RH: As long as the musicians are good. For instance, if you're playing some funk, if you're got some guys that have a good pocket and can keep good time, and that have imagination and will accompany you, then it's pretty much the same thing. The only thing that's different is when you're playing with lesser or mediocre musicians. That's a challenge.

B&N.com: But the interaction has to be there, though.

RH: Yeah, definitely. Now, there's drawbacks, because sometimes the funk cats don't know how to accompany you. They just play the groove. You kind of have to have a jazz sensibility to be able to do that. But then, you can't be too far over there, because then you play too much, like too many notes or too many drum fills. You have to keep it tight in the pocket, but with imagination. You have to be free enough to accompany the soloist.

B&N.com: Is it a holistic thing, or do you go into separate states of mind?

RH: Man, it's the same to me. I feel like whatever you play, you've got to put your whole self in it. If you're playing some funk, you've got to be funky. And if you're going to swing, you've got to swing really hard. Not just a little swing. I mean, a lot of swing! Yeah, that's how I feel about it.

B&N.com: One last question. What are you listening to these days?

RH: Oh, man, I got a smorgasbord in my booklet. Let me open it. I don't pull my CDs out, because people want to borrow them. I've got Kenny Dorham Sings and Plays: It's the Moment. The Red and Orange Poems, Gary Bartz. Grachan Moncur III, Some Other Stuff. McCoy Tyner, Extensions. The Milt Jackson Sextet, Invitation. Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster. Music of My Mind, Stevie Wonder. The Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones. Earth, Wind & Fire, Gratitude. Al Green, I'm Still in Love with You. The Isley Brothers, Three Plus Three. Cameo, Live. Outcast, Stank on Ya. Bill Withers Live. The Miles Davis complete In a Silent Way joint. Curtis Mayfield, Super-Fly. Oscar Peterson Plus One, with Clark Terry. Common, Electric Circus. Wes Montgomery, Full House. Dexter Gordon, Homecoming. Marvin Gaye, Trouble Man.

May 21, 2003