Jazz Review : Hargrove Quintet Delivers a One-Note Performance

Roy Hargrove, whose quintet played at Ambassador Ambassador on Thursday, is one of a number of young trumpeters who have invariably been hailed as the next Dizzy or the next Miles. Like Terence Blanchard and others in this group, Hargrove is equipped with exceptional technique, along with a powerful tone and attack.

But his performance Thursday failed to live up to the expected high level because he seemed a little too determined to please the audience at all costs. The first and last numbers during the opening half of the show began with Hargrove playing alone and the band lamely clapping along on the after beats.

Too often Hargrove sounded as if he were being paid by the note. His horn mate, tenor saxophonist Ron Blake, was guilty of similar excesses. At one point he employed the kind of audience-milking used decades ago in the old Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts. Of course it worked--the wilder his blowing, the louder the approval of the crowd.

Hargrove came off best playing fluegelhorn in “When We Were One,” and in the concert’s only ballad-standard, “The Nearness of You,” during which he revealed a capacity for lyricism he shows too rarely.

The concert ended on a sour note with Hargrove’s abysmal attempt to sing “September in the Rain.”