In 1998, trumpeter Roy Hargrove and his group Crisol recorded Grande-Terre, an unreleased album for over 25 years. Verve Records releases the album on October 18, 2024, shortly after what would have been Hargrove's 55th birthday (October 16). Born in 1969 in Waco, Texas, Hargrove died on November 2, 2018, at the age of 49, due to cardiac arrest stemming from kidney disease.

The trumpeter became a notable jazz figure in the late 1980s and 1990s. His playing spanned jazz, neo-soul, and hip-hop, appearing on D'Angelo's Voodoo, Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun, and Common's Like Water for Chocolate. Grande-Terre sheds light on how Hargrove's Crisol work fits these other projects, providing overdue historical context.

Roy Hargrove Official - Grande-Terre

Grande-Terre. Roy Hargrove Official, a jazz artist from New York City

Roy Hargrove

Crisol: Grande-Terre follows Hargrove's 1997 album Habana, which won a Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Performance. Crisol, meaning "melting pot" in Spanish, included musicians from Cuba, the United States, and Guadeloupe, including:

• Frank Lacy (trombone)
• Sherman Irby (alto saxophone)
• Jacques Schwarz-Bart (tenor saxophone)
• Gabriel Hernández and Larry Willis (piano)
• Ed Cherry (guitar)
• Gerald Cannon (bass)
• Miguel "Angá" Diaz and Changuito (José Luis Quintana) (percussion)
• Julio Barreto and Willie Jones (drums)

This group combines established jazz players with younger musicians who later developed significant careers. Sherman Irby became a long-time member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. At the same time, Jacques Schwarz-Bart later released several acclaimed albums as a leader and worked with artists like D'Angelo and Meshell Ndegeocello.

Grande-Terre arrives amid renewed attention to 1990s and early 2000s jazz. Young musicians like Hargrove mixed traditional jazz with hip-hop, R&B, and world music elements during this time. Contemporaneous recordings include Branford Marsalis's Buckshot LeFonque (1994), which blended jazz with hip-hop and R&B; Nicholas Payton's Gumbo Nouveau (1995), which incorporated New Orleans funk into modern jazz; and Gonzalo Rubalcaba's Antiguo (1998), which fused Afro-Cuban rhythms with contemporary jazz forms.

Jazz radio is picking up on "Priorities," the first single from the ten-track album. WBGO in Newark, KCSM in San Mateo, and Jazz88.FM - KBEM in Minneapolis have all included the track in their rotations, exhibiting support and enthusiasm for this previously unknown work by a musician The New York Times described as "the most impactful trumpeter of his generation."

Crisol: Grande-Terre will be available on LP, CD, and digital on October 18, 2024