Roy Hargrove

Roy Hargrove passed away that night

Roy Hargrove passed away that night

Rip Roy

Muy bueno ..el sonido no tan bueno

Great concert!

Sound system was not very good!!!!! I sat on the 3rd row and could hardly hear.

I'm biased. Roy Hargrove can do no wrong for me. Let's start with the setting. Two years ago he packed out the Union Chapel and to my untrained eye Shoreditch Town Hall is smaller so how come there were so many empty seats especially in the first six or eight rows. I didn't bother but a lot of people slipped into better seats after twenty minutes. It's weird because I booked early and row J was the best available. Whatever happened it left the place feeling a little odd and like you doubted you were in the right place. Nonetheless on they come at 8pm sharp. Roy sits a lot these days which I gathered by recent YouTube videos. There is a looseness to the approach which could almost feel, dare I say, lazy, but it's not, it's just his/their way. Concert starts with a couple tunes that are deliberately unstructured. The kind of jazz that I think a lot of people might grin and bare. Midway Roy switches to flugelhorn and delivers some lovely old school music with brushes, bass and piano in perfect complement. Roy sings what seems to be a new favourite and again, courtesy of YouTube I kinda knew this was coming. It's interesting. The best description is that he has perhaps entered a Chet Baker moment. A crowd pleasing bouncy duet with pianist, a short reworking of Strasbourg St Denis which I have long come to think he feels is like a weight round his neck so that he would never play it 'album like' again. Add some call and response with the audience, a great little dance skit with saxophonist, a segue into Earth Wind and Fire's 'Fantasy' (which everyone would have liked to be an entire cover version) and a fine encore and it's been a great ninety minutes where you have had excellent music spanning more than a couple of styles and a sense that, whilst they've seen it all before, the band have enjoyed themselves. Shame it was one day outside the London jazz festival in which case it may have got a more deserved recognition.

The concert was GREAT!

Awesomely talented.

brilliant