Roy Hargrove, one of the leading jazz trumpeters and multiple Grammy award winner, is going to be one of the headliners of XXVII International Nisville Jazz Festival (August 12th to 15th 2010). His performance, along with his quintet (Justin Robinson - saxophone, Jonathan Batiste - piano, Ameen Saleem – double bass and Montez Coleman – drums) is officially confirmed.
A fine, straight-ahead player who spent his childhood years in Texas, Hargrove met trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis in 1987, when the latter musician visited Hargrove's high school in Dallas. Impressed with the student's sound, Marsalis allowed Hargrove to sit in with his band and helped him secure additional work with major players, including Bobby Watson, Ricky Ford, Carl Allen, and the group Superblue. Hargrove attended Berklee for one (1988-1989) before decamping to New York City, where his studio career took flight. In 1990, the young Hargrove (he was only 20 at the time) released his first of five recordings for Novus. He often toured with his own group, which for several years including Antonio Hart. In addition to Novus, Hargrove also recorded for Verve and served as a sideman with quite a few notable figures, including Sonny Rollins, James Clay, Frank Morgan, and Jackie McLean, and the ensemble Jazz Futures. His Verve album roster includes 1995's Family and Parker's Mood. Habana (a Grammy-winning album of Afro-Cuban music) and Moment to Moment followed at the end of the decade. Hargrove also went on to contribute to well-received R&B albums by Erykah Badu and D'Angelo, but he also remained indebted to hard bop with such albums as 2008's Earfood. A year later, Hargrove returned with his 19-member big band on Emergence. This year, 40-year old Ray Hargrove was nominated for the best jazz solo in his composition “Ms. Garvey, Ms. Garvey†from his album “Emergence†that he recorded with his big band. He also recorded and performed with Johnny Griffin, Stanley Turrentine, Joe Henderson, Joshua Redman, Jackie McLean, Slide Hampton, Dianne Reeves, Abbey Lincoln, Helen Merrill, Jimmy Smith, Cedar Walton, Oscar Peterson, T.S. Monk, Shirley Horn, Dave Brubeck, Roy Haynes, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Kevin Mahogany, Jimmy Cobb, Mike Stern (...) as well as with Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, Diana Ross, Vanessa Williams, Boz Scaggs, Gilles Peterson, Linda Ronstadt, Rod Stewart, Gladys Knight...