Trumpeter Roy Hargrove burst on the music scene in the mid-90s as one of the brightest young stars of jazz. But he proved to be anything but a closed minded jazz purist, as over the course of the next decade he showed amazing versatility in the jazz, Latin, classical, R&B and funk realms.
In 2003, in an obvious departure from his jazz work with the Roy Hargrove Quintet, Hargrove established the RH Factor, a group that bridged jazz, hip hop and funk in a tight sound that showed elements of artists ranging from Miles Davis to Earth Wind & Fire. Their debut album Hard Groove was an underground hit and the follow-up EP, Strength, solidified a strong following among R&B fans.
Since Hard Groove, Hargrove has continued to move in and out of different musical worlds, continuing his recordings with his jazz quintet and joining with Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker for the Grammy winning Directions in Music. He has also toured frequently with the RH Factor and in May 2006 simultaneously released the group’s third disc, Distractions, and Hargrove’s own new Roy Hargrove Quintet album, Nothing Serious.
For Distractions, Hargrove assembled a larger collection of artists than previous RH Factor albums, including saxophonists Keith Anderson and David "Fathead" Newman, keyboardists Charles McCampbell, Bobby Sparks and Renee Neufville, guitarist Todd Parsnow, drummers Jason "JT" Thomas and Willie Jones III, and bass players Lenny Stalworth and Reggie Washington. And fronting the group on the vocal numbers is Neufville, the former Zhane lead singer.
