Emergence

You've got to wonder what kind of musician would even think to take a 19-piece band into the studio and out on the road, especially with the nation's current economic condition. That kind of musician would be Roy Hargrove, the veteran Jazz trumpeter and composer who is releasing his first big band album, Emergence. For Hargrove, whose previous release, 2008's quintet session Earfood, found its way into dozens of Jazz critics' year-end Top 10 lists, recording Emergence was not some crazy impulse decision but rather the realization of a dream. The 11-track Emergence documents the present state of the Roy Hargrove Big Band's ongoing evolution. Emergence was recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood with Hargrove and his manager Larry Clothier producing and the multi-Grammy winner Al Schmitt engineering and mixing.