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Two-time Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter, Roy Hargrove, has died at age 49.
According to longtime manager Larry Clothier, Hargrove’s cause of death was cardiac arrest. NPR reports that Hargrove had recently been admitted to the hospital “for reasons related to kidney function” and he was on dialysis for a number of years.
Born and raised in Waco, Texas, Hargrove was discovered by Wynton Marsalis while in high school. He briefly attended Boston’s Berklee College of Music before transferring to the New School in NYC. There, he released his first recording with saxophonist Bobby Watson.
Hargrove released his first solo album in 1990 through the Novus/RCA label. The album was titled Diamond in the Rough. After its release, the trumpeter was commissioned by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra to write The Love Suite: In Mahogany, which premiered in 1993.
Hargrove’s first Grammy was for the album Habana with Crisol, an Afro-Cuban band that he founded. His 2002 Grammy, for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, honored his Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall, along with Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker.
Over the course of his career, he performed with a number of notable figures in the jazz world, including Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, Jamie McLean, Oscar Peterson, and others. He also contributed to albums for artists like Erykah Badu and Common. In 2014, he joined forces with D’Angelo to perform on Black Messiah.
Hargrove opened up about his inspirations in a 2007 interview with All About Jazz. He named John Hicks, James Williams, and Bobby Watson as important influences in his life. Asked how he believes he’s absorbed his influences, he said, “John Hicks influenced me with his harmonic concept. He uses a lot of major chords. At the time that I connected with him, he was playing tunes with a major sharp 11th sound. That’s one of my favorite sound. So I started to write a lot of tunes with that sound in it. James Williams has a very soulful approach to writing. This is something that I took little bit of from him… Of course, Charlie Parker influences my writing. He had a lot of rhythmic and harmonic things going on. And a lot his tunes were like pieces of his solos. He had certain phrases that he would develop. One of the hippest things about Bird’s tunes is that at the end of the melody it continues back at the beginning. [Sings the head to “drifting on a Reed”] It turns back on itself and keeps going and going! That’s really heavy to me, I really like that.”
Hargrove was scheduled to perform on Sunday at a jazz service in Newark, New Jersey. He continued to play the trumpet and perform live until his death.