Roy Hargrove's "Habana"

[Larry Kart]

Picked this 1997 album up on a whim, even though I'm far from a knowledgeable Hargrove fan, and at this point I'm very pleasantly surprised. Hargrove does kind of blow his top and lose track of his lines from time to time (IMO), but he is definitely engaged, and his band (Gary Bartz, David Sanchez, Frank Lacy, Russell Malone) has its strengths; the charts are tangy (for want of a better term) in a Don Sickler-esque manner (he arranges one of them, the other charts are the work of their composers), and best of all the added Cuban contingent (Chucho Valdes, drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, timbalist Jose Luis Quintana, congero Miguel "Anga" Diaz, and bassist John Benitez) is VERY strong and (thanks be) vividly recorded. Valdes I've certainly heard before, but his aggressive comping here is really something.

BTW, 1997 is a LONG time ago, I suppose, and not only by the calendar.

[etherbored]

one of the select few hargrove dates in my collection. a stellar project of which there's two or three in his catalog.

[CJ Shearn]

It's a great album. It's just unfortunate Roy's chops seem to be a bit off in recent videos I've seen, he's definitely struggled with addiction which is very sad to see. He looks so much like Bobby Brown these days too it's eerie.

[Tom 1960]

Great to come across this recommendation. I'll check out some of the online samples on iTunes. Always been a fan of Roy's. Sad to hear of his recent troubles.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Tom 1960

[CJ Shearn]

Sounds a bit like Wynton tho LOL.

Edited May 25, 2013 by CJ Shearn

[mikeweil]

That's a very good album. I was surprised back then, as I hadn't expected Hargrove to get so deeply into Cuban music, but he did it really well. He was sorry that it was impossible to keep that band together, and rightly so.

Edited May 25, 2013 by mikeweil

[colinmce]

The only Hargrove I've heard is the big band album Emergence, which I thought was spectacular. I'll check this one out.