Grande-Terre (Verve)
Roy Hargrove’s Crisol
Released October 18, 2024
NPR Music Best Albums of 2024
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About:
In April of 1998, fresh off their Grammy win for Best Latin Jazz Performance for their debut effort, Habana, Roy Hargrove’s Crisol went into a studio in Guadalupe to record their follow-up album. Until now, that album, Grande-Terre, has never been heard. Featuring an all-star band of Roy’s long-time collaborators, including trombonist Frank Lacy, pianist Larry Willis, bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Willie Jones III, Grande-Terre showcases Hargrove’s fiery playing, his exquisite writing and the band’s incredible power and unique sound. Roy’s untimely passing in 2018 makes us wonder what this band could have achieved if they’d had the chance to continue developing their original approach to Latin Jazz.
Track Listing:
1. Rumba Roy (Gabriel Hernández) 6:52
2. A Song For Audrey (Gerald Cannon) 7:15
3. Lake Danse (Roy Hargrove) 6:26
4. Kamala’s Dance (Roy Hargrove) 5:11
5. B And B (Ed Cherry) 4:47
6. Another Time (Willie Jones III) 5:10
7. Lullaby From Atlantis (Jacques Schwarz-Bart) 7:31
8. Afreaka (Cedar Walton) 6:10
9. Ethiopia (Larry Williams) 5:52
10. Priorities (Roy Hargrove) 5:18
Personnel:
Roy Hargrove: trumpet, flugelhorn
Frank Lacy: trombone
Sherman Irby: alto saxophone
Jacques Schwarz-Bart: tenor saxophone
Gabriel Hernandez: piano
Larry Willis: piano
Ed Cherry: guitar
Gerald Cannon: bass
Changuito: percussion
Miguel “Angá” Díaz: percussion
Julio Barreto: drums, vocals
Willie Jones III: drums
Recorded April 1998 at La Terreur studio in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, by Henri Debs
Produced by Larry Clothier and Roy Hargrove
Post Production, Mixing and Mastering: John Lee
Release Supervision: Ken Druker
Production / Release Coordination: Eric Neuser
Art Coordination: Tai Linzie
Photography: Des McMahon
Art Direction and Design: Kyledidthis
Review:
The glow of his first Grammy win — in the category of Best Latin Jazz Performance, for Habana — didn’t even have time to fade before trumpet dynamo Roy Hargrove went back into the studio to record a sequel, in the spring of 1998. Why, then, was that album put in the vault rather than on a release schedule? It couldn’t have been the quality of the music, because Grand-Terre is an ecstatic winner: an even more fluent and focused celebration of Afro-Cuban musical lineage, with Hargrove and his Crisol band both in exceptionally strong form. Maybe the album would have been taken for granted had it been released in the immediate wake of Habana; arriving as it does six years after Hargrove’s untimely death, it’s a heartening reminder of his uncommon gift for crisp lyricism, his abiding respect for Afro-Diasporic traditions, and his strutting ease in every sort of groove.
Nate Chinen (WRTI)
