11. The RH FactorDistractions
Roy Hargrove was such a phenomenal musician and just had so much in his arsenal. He’s a young legend really, younger than the generation of Miles or Charlie Parker, but you can tell he’s just coming straight out of that school. He’s someone who has also played with so many musicians, that informs his musicality and the way he speaks through the trumpet. I could choose any album by Roy really, but I chose this one because when I was getting into jazz, this is one of the albums that really brought me in, like learning how to blow and listening to music that I really liked. And I think ‘Crazy Race’ is one of those songs. It’s a modern jazz standard.
When I first heard the album, I thought, “This is amazing.” It’s got the funk, it’s got the hip hop, it’s got the jazz, it’s got the collective improvisation, like what you hear in early traditional jazz. When I was a teenager, a kid, I was like, what is this song? What is this sound? But I love it. It’s amazing how this album is so funky, so hip hop, but so jazz as well. It’s inspirational, in the sense that you can respect and honour the musicians that have come before you, but also be present in your time and that’s what it sounds like. He’s got D’Angelo, he’s got Renee Neufville, his contemporaries in another genre of music, but it’s so jazz, as well. That’s one of the albums that brought me in, with my dad’s ear for swing and more complex jazz, but maybe I wasn’t there yet. Integrity is the word. It’s almost all styles and all sounds. You can tell he’s just being himself and that is something that is influential to me.
