In the last few years
Roy Hargrove alternates his ‘straight ahead’ and latin jazz with the neo-soul/funk/jazz that we know of The RH Factor. The North Sea Jazz Festival succeeded in booking both bands for the 2006 edition in Rotterdam. And on top of it all the festival presents the virtuoso trumpeter as the featured soloist of The Dizzy Gillespie All Big Band. At the beginning of the nineties Roy Hargrove was one of the the ‘Young Lions’, a group of greedy young jazz musicians who excelled especially in neo-hard bop. In 1995 he won the prestigious DownBeat Reader Poll. From that moment on, he worked steadily on a rock solid career. This year he released no less than two albums at the same time.
Nothing Serious is an album with the quintet that will, partly, perform at the festival this year. The repertoire consists of a pleasant mix of ballads, fast bop pieces an Latin tinged compositions.
Distractions, the new album of the The RH Factor, sounds like an album that just had to be made, because otherwise the trumpeter would have exploded. The music of Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor has energy, is fully contemporary and funks and swings unashamedly. Bassist Reggie Washington and drummer Jason Thomas produce thick fat grooves that are ripped apart by Hargrove with trumpet lines that are sharp as knives.
