Hard Groove Rh Factor Zip
A new musical vision for ace jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove has manifested itself in the form of Hard Groove.This neo-soul/jazz project showcases Erykah Badu, Common, D'Angelo, Marc Cary, and jam band icon saxophonist Karl Denson on a 14-track set that is laden with funk, groove, freestyle rap poetry, and sultry hip-hop/R&B mood swings. Hargrove's interesting horn and keyboard improvisations stem. Feb 02, 2020. Hard Groove, an Album by The RH Factor. Released 20 May 2003 on Verve (catalog no. 440 065 192-2; CD). Genres: Jazz-Funk, Jazz Fusion.
Having previously immersed his trumpet in two 'new soul' collaborations in 2000—D'Angelo's Grammy Award-winning Voodoo album and subsequent tour, plus songstress Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun album—Roy Hargrove dives headfirst into the soul pool. RH Factor blends a core band of two saxophonists, three keyboard players, two bassists and drummers, and two guitarists (including legendary soul session ace Cornell Dupree) with the best and brightest from the soul and R&B 'new schools' including D'Angelo, Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello, Steve Coleman, Karl Denson, Marc Cary, and two hip-hop MCs: Common and Q-Tip. 'I just wanted to open a door that would allow the musicians involved in jazz and the musicians involved in the R&B / hip-hop mainstream to form some music that would have no limit,' Hargrove explains. 'It's like a merging of those two worlds.'Hargrove meets his objective, perhaps even surpasses it, with an album that sounds like one Lester Bowie and Maxwell would make together. He steers Hard Groove toward the trumpet school opened by Donald Byrd, especially with the wah-wah sound trumpet production and hand-clapping street funk of 'Common Free Style.' There are other miles-tones: Hargrove's approach and brittle processed sound to his trumpet ' quicksilver darting atop roiling funk rhythms ' urge 'Juicy' and 'Out of Town' closer to such fractious pre-retirement musings of Miles as Black Beauty.
The opener, 'Hardgroove,' a clever wordplay on the leader's name, paints a new face on hard bop jazz, rocking up top with trumpet and saxophone in unison and in counterpoint, rocking down below with inventive and challenging bass and drum rhythms. Denson and Hargrove riff on Freddie Hubbard's 'Little Sunflower' to form the instrumental poetry behind Q-Tip's spoken riffing and Badu's singing on 'Poetry,' creating a very different type of vocal jazz. (Don't sweat Hargrove's jazz chops: this past February, Hargrove, Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker won the Best Instrumental Jazz Performance Grammy Award for Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall.)
Track Listing
Hardgroove; Common Free Style; I'll Stay; Interlude; Pastor 'T'; Poetry; The Joint; Forget Regret; Outof Town; Liquid Streets; Kwah / Home; How I Know; Juicy; The Stroke
Personnel
Roy Hargrove (arranger, trumpet, flugelhorn, keyboards, bass, percussion, vocals); Keith Anderson(saxophones); Jacques Schwarz-Bart (saxophones); James Poyser (keyboards); Bobby Sparks(keyboards); Bernard Wright (keyboards); Spanky (Chalmers Alford) (guitars); Cornell Dupree(guitars); Pino Palladino (bass); Reggie Washington (bass); Willie Jones III (drums); Jason Thomas(drums); Erykah Badu (vocals); Steve Coleman (alto saxophone); Common (vocals); D'Angelo(vocals, Wurlitzer); Karl Denson (flute); Anthony Hamilton (vocals); Shelby Johnson (vocals);Stephanie McKay (vocals); Meshell Ndegeocello (bass); Renee Neufville (vocals); Q-Tip (vocals)
Album information
The Rh Factor Hard Groove Zip
Title: Hard Groove Year Released: 2003 Record Label: Verve Music Group