Roy A. Hargrove (born October 16, 1969) is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997, and in 2002. Hargrove has played primarily with jazz musicians with stellar careers, from Wynton Marsalis to Herbie Hancock.
Hargrove is the band leader of the progressive group The RH Factor, which combines elements of jazz, funk, hip-hop, soul, and gospel music.
Hargrove was born October 16, 1969 in Waco, Texas, to parents who early in his childhood discovered his musical potential,[1] and with lessons on the trumpet, was discovered as a potential jazz talent when trumpet player, Wynton Marsalis visited his high school, Dallas's Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. One of his influences was saxophone player David "Fathead" Newman, who performed in Ray Charles' Band at Hargrove's junior high school.
Hargrove spent one year (1988 through 1989) studying at Boston's Berklee College of Music, but could more often be found in New York City jam sessions, and finally transferred to The New School, in New York. His first recording there was with the saxophonist Bobby Watson. Shortly afterwards he made a recording with Superblue featuring Watson, Mulgrew Miller, and Kenny Washington. In 1990 he released his first solo album, Diamond in the Rough, on the Novus/RCA label, along with four other albums.
He signed a recording contract with Verve Records, which gave him the opportunity to record with some of the major jazz musicians on With the Tenors of Our Time, including Joe Henderson, Stanley Turrentine, Johnny Griffin, Joshua Redman, and Branford Marsalis. In 1993 he was commissioned by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and wrote The Love Suite: In Mahogany. Hargrove won a Grammy Award in 1998 for the album Habana with the Afro-Cuban band he founded: "Crisol".
