Roy Hargrove Quintet @Catalina’s 01.26.12
By George W. Harris
He hasn’t had a release in almost three years, but trumpeter Roy Hargrove showed the Catalina crowd that has enough ideas and material to put out a double disc on the 90 minute set on this warm winter night. Teamed with the flexible quartet of Sullivan Fortner/p, Ameen Saleem/b, Justin Robinson/as and the impressively adroit Quincy Phillips/dr, Hargrove started off a bit slow with a slightly dusty reading of the bopping “The Lamp Is Low” before getting into 2nd and 3rd gear with a gentle and lazy “Is That So.” Fortner caressed the keys on McCoy Tyner’s “Aisha” as well as on his spotlight during “Starsburg/St. Denis” where he essentially gave the history of jazz soloing in a mere five 5 minutes. Phillips almost stole the show himself, mixing up times, rhythms and styles with the workmanlike adaptability of a short order cook at The Pantry, particularly displaying some slick brushwork behind Hargrove’s glistening flugelhorn on “I’m Glad There Is You.” A hard bopper at heart, Hargrove joined at the hip with Robinson to ricochet notes back and forth like it was the shootout at OK Corral on “The Song Was,” while closing the fun-filled set with a funky take of “13th Floor” with guest tenorist Kamasi Washington’s beef sound that melded with the front line like a thick curry sauce. A toe tapping treat all night for the man with a horn, and deserving a label.