Roy Hargrove Strength CD

The RH Factor: Roy Hargrove (vocals, trumpet, flugelhorn, keyboards, bass instrument, percussion, background vocals); Renee Neufville (vocals); Keith Anderson (saxophone); James Poyser, Bernard Wright, Bobby Sparks (keyboards); Pino Palladino, Reggie Washington (bass instrument); JT , Willie Jones (drums).
Additional personnel: Rhian Ayanna (background vocals).
Trumpeter Roy Hargrove drops funky on this six-track, 45-minute "EP." Teamed with a smorgasbord of musicians track-to-track, Hargrove throws down with everyone from bassist Pino Palladino to saxophonist Karl Denson to a slew of keyboard players including Bobby Sparks as well as a handful of vocalists -- Hargrove gets into the vocal act as well. While this reads like a sure-fire recipe for disaster, it's nothing like that actually. This is deep groove jazz-funk and it's played in the pocket, fat and greasy. Recommended cuts include "Rich Man's Welfare," and the awesome, ten-minute, "Universe (Bigga Than You Know It Is Mix)." ~ Thom Jurek
Though it's billed as an EP, STRENGTH is 45 minutes long, and certainly has enough content to qualify for full-length status. RH Factor is jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove's electric jazz-funk alter-ego; under this moniker, the erstwhile straight-ahead jazzman neatly solves the problem that's been plaguing musicians since the early 1970s--how do you mix jazz with funk and electric instruments without sounding like Miles Davis? While the roiling R&B grooves and percolating keyboard riffs that frame Hargrove's terse trumpet lines are somewhat in the lineage of ON THE CORNER, JACK JOHNSON, et al, there's a distinctly contemporary feel to STRENGTH. There's as much Earth, Wind & Fire and hip-hop showing in Hargrove's roots here as Miles; much of this disc wouldn't sound out of place in the middle of a particularly progressive dance-club mix. Nevertheless, Hargrove generates enough fire and genuine melodic development to underscore the fact that he's a master improviser first and foremost.