Two generations of jazz met at Yoshi’s San Francisco, as pianist McCoy Tyner teamed up with trumpeter Roy Hargrove for the first time. But something was amiss in what turned out to be an uncomfortable pairing between the two stars.
Big bands are all the rage in modern jazz circles these days. But while a lot of these groups specialize in charts that seem to be the musical equivalent of differential calculus or quantum mechanics, the big band led by star trumpeter Roy Hargrove goes back to the fundamentals. Playing their second set of the evening, Hargrove’s crew provided swing, fireworks, and good old-fashioned fun.
Mainstream cool met primordial fire at Yoshi’s San Francisco. But would this unlikely pairing of divergent musical personalities work?
I hadn’t expected to catch any live music tonight, but I was able to slip back to Smalls for a couple of late sets by two artists who have been on my radar for a while, Owen Howard and Nick Hempton…
In a lineup as loaded as this one, it’s not often that any performance can be called “must-hear.” But when a set involves McCoy Tyner’s trio, plus the added star power of Bobby Hutcherson and Roy Hargrove, it’s a no-brainer.
