One of the most gifted jazz musicians of his generation, Roy Hargrove, has died at age 49 after reportedly suffering cardiac arrest.
Besides recording his own series of acclaimed albums, Hargrove became famous among urban music fans in the early 2000s as a member of the collective the Soulquarians, appearing on essential albums like D’Angelo’s “Voodoo,” Common’s “Like Water for Chocolate” and Erykah Badu’s “Mama’s Gun.”
NPR reported that Hargrove, who’d been on dialysis for many years, had been admitted to the hospital for “reasons related to kidney function” at the time of his death. He had been scheduled to perform in New Jersey Saturday night.
“The Great Roy Hargrove: He is literally the one man horn section I hear in my head when I think about music,” wrote Questlove in an Instagram post. “I know I’ve spoken (of) every aspect of Soulquarian era recording techniques but even I can’t properly document how crucial and spot on Roy was with his craft, man. We NEVER gave him instructions: just played the song and watched him go.” Questlove wrote about how you can hear him and other band members screaming and laughing during a Hargrove solo on the Common track “Cold Blooded” because “that’s us MIND BLOWN… We were just reacting in real time to greatness… And a beautiful cat, man. Love to the immortal timeless genius that will forever be Roy Hargrove, y’all.”
