Roberta Gambarini and Roy Hargrove

The Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band fronted by Roberta and Roy Skat'in away. Roy throws in a wicked trumpet solo to boot. From The Giants of Jazz 11 in South Orange N.J.October 2008.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Roy
• Hargrove
• Roberta
• Gambarini
• John
• Lee
• jazz
• legacy
• jazzvideoguy
• giants
• of
• dizzy
• gillespie

[Prickler32]

Is that Cyrus Chestnut on piano?

[JazzLegacy]

@Prickler32 YES!!!

[JazzLegacy]

@Caponsacchi: I'm glad you changed your mind and were big enough to revise your comment. btw, the bassist John Lee was Dizzy's last bassist and spent several years with him. His custom made bass has a unique hybrid sound particularly the way he plays it.

[thedking94]

am i the only one that thinks the guy with the orange coat is hilaarrious

[JazzLegacy]

I would say that you may be the only one astute enough to realize in the few seconds he's on screen that "the guy in the orange coat is hilarrious".

either that or we did a really great job of capturing his essence. His name is Jimmy Owens.

[mikeypattybecky]

god, roy just kills.

[JackieGeeNinja]

Amazing scats!

Bass, Guitar, Piano, Trumpet impersonations all in one!

[ylhorimoto]

what's with Slide not wanting to be associated with the band anymore?

[caponsacchi]

Roy is sounding good these days, like Eldridge or Diz. But he can lose the vocalizing. Roberta has to play down to him to make it work because she doesn't scat as much as create like Bird or Diz. Dig her at the Taichung 2010 Festival with Jimmy Heath, Antonio Hart, Benny Green, esp. "Lover Come Back" and a couple others. There she's got her mean game face on, not about to give an inch. Like Ella when she took on Jaws, Getz, Eldridge, Grey and demolished them one at a time.

[intrepidpooch]

@caponsacchi I dug Roy's scat more on here, by far actually. His scat (just like his trumpet playing) shows a much deeper knowledge of the tradition and his phrasing has so much melodic slickness. He's telling a story every chorus, there are so many great call and response moments and all his phrases have so much logic and cohesiveness in the way they connect to each other.

[caponsacchi]

Actually, Hargrove's scat singing (which is quite good) makes you appreciate Gambarini all the more. Dig the precision of those intervals, and the appropriateness of her responses to Hargrove's licks, all the while keeping it musical. Roy's trumpet work on this Ab blues is practically a replica (a slightly cooled down one) of that of another Roy, the legendary Roy Eldridge ("Little Jazz"), who played in literally hundreds of these sessions, often with Diz as a sparring mate.

[caponsacchi]

Roberta is the new Ella. No one comes close (occasionally, maybe Ann Hampton Callaway and Cheryl Bentyne), but Roberta is the complete musician, able to pick Gillespie and Stitt solos right off the record. I could do without Hargrove's scat singing on this video. Haven't seen electric bass in a jazz ensemble since the '70s. (Acoustic is still preferred.) Nice crisp hi-hat sound.

[Brian4hand]

@ 1:30 I think thats the widest Ive ever seen Roy's eyes lol

[drummistic]

this chick just gives me goosebumps all over..not only is she probably one of the top 10 female traditional jazz vocalists of this time period ( of course I love Tierney and Diane Reeves too), but she is gorgeous too.........love her. ...and this cat Hargrove....wowwwwwwwwww. Every one of these cats are monsters....

Pete Zito , 3rd

Phila.,Pa.