Roy Hargrove Moment to Moment (Verve)

Roy Hargrove

Moment to Moment (Verve)

One might have thought that the first album from Texas trumpeter Roy Hargrove with the explosive quintet with which he's been barnstorming for the past couple of years would reflect the unabashed excitement this funky, swinging band generates night after night. What we get instead is an offering from the totally opposite end of the spectrum: a lush, reflective, sometimes somnolent set of ballads with strings. In many ways reminiscent of the 1955 Clifford Brown With Strings album, which placed that fiery trump legend in the same context, Moment to Moment no doubt strives for the timeless quality these projects tend to evoke with the added hope of perhaps attracting a non-jazz or even easy-listening audience. It's no coincidence that the credits for the string arrangements are listed above the quintet's personnel, as saxman Sherman Irby and veteran pianist Larry Willis are virtually invisible. Not that this isn't a beautiful-sounding album. Hargrove, heard on both trumpet and the round-toned flugelhorn, is controlled and downright elegant; Moment to Moment provides a gorgeous soundtrack for a romantic candlelight dinner. This is all well and good, but repeated listens to the album leave one with a sense of it being little more than dispassionate, audio wallpaper. These jaded ears would have preferred a ballad session that derived its soul and integrity from impassioned playing and the interactive communication of the band members.

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