Roy Hargrove was born on October 16, 1969 in Waco, Texas.  He soon became familiar with the recordings of Maynard Ferguson, Clifford Brown and Freddie Hubbard, and in the spring of 1987, Hargrove met the man who would electrify his dreams of a professional career who is trumpet superstar Wynton Marsalis.

When Marsalis made an unannounced visit to the Dallas Arts Magnet, Hargrove’s school, he was so impressed by his musical talents that he immediately arranged special studies for him. He also recommended the assistance of manager-producer Larry Clothier, and as a result, Hargrove had the opportunity to travel to New York, and later to Europe and Japan. He soon became a member of the New York Jazz community, and under the supervision of Clothier, started recording as a sideman with Bobby Watson, Ricky Ford, Carl Allen, and Don Sickler’s Superblue band.

After graduating from high school in June 1988, Hargrove spent the summer in Europe, where he had the opportunity to play in several major festivals, sharing the stage with musical luminaries as Clifford Jordan, Jerome Richardson and Tete Montoliu. In the fall he entered college at the Berklee School of Music on various scholarships, including one from Down Beat magazine, which had selected him as best jazz soloist of the year. In 1990, Hargrove moved to New York, where he enrolled in the New School’s Jazz and Contemporary Music program.

The first recording of The Roy Hargrove Quintet, featuring altoist Antonio Hart, Diamond on the Rough, appeared in 1990, and was followed by Public Eye in 1991. The summer of that year, Hargrove was featured at many European festivals, fronting an all star package, The Jazz Futures. The quintet’s third recording, The Vibe, which appeared in the spring of 1992, was highly rated by critics all over the world, and the band toured again to Europe, Japan and the US. In 1993, tenor saxophonist Ron Blake replaced Antonio Hart, and with Blake, Gary Bartz and trombonist André Hayward, Hargrove recorded his fourth -and last- album for RCA-Novus, Of Kindred Souls.

In 1993, before he was 25, Hargrove was already a major star in the world of contemporary jazz, and was signed by Verve – Polygram, a label strongly committed to the promotion of young talent. For Verve, he recorded The Tenors of Our Iime, an ambitious project featuring Johnny Griffin, Stanley Turrentine, Joe Henderson and Joshua Redman.

During the late 1990’s Roy had also been leading The Roy Hargrove Big Band, a large group of young musicians he started out rehearsing a few years ago to work out his talents as a composer and arranger.