PFT Media

Perhaps Generation X’s first jazz star, Roy Hargrove came through at a time where the ‘new’ was pushed along by the rising tide of hip-hop. Hargrove gave both the genre and the trumpet a newfound energy, one that could stand up to the changes happening as the 20th century gave way to the 21st. With two Grammys and a career that’s spanned 30 years, his talent has held its own with such titans as Joe Henderson, Shirley Horn, Sonny Rollins, Wynton Marsalis, and Joshua Redman. He sadly left us too soon, but his influence lives on in his collaborations with contemporary artists such as D’Angelo, John Mayer, and Common. We pay our respects to the man with violinist Tanner Johnson, whose arrangement of Hargrove’s “Strasbourg-St. Denis” serves as a touching tribute, and Jon Lampley of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s Stay Human band, who finishes the segment with thoughtful insight and a sensitive note.