Years back Straight No Chaser ran an article on the man Roy Hargrove and a project of his named The RH Factor. The project was a side working for the jazz trumpeter / composer to explore his influences in hip-hop, soul and funk while not straying too far from ‘progressive jazz’ as it was called. A few days later I picked up the Distractions album and been a big fan of his work ever since.
I just got put on to this video of The Roy Hargrove Quintet playing live from 2008. If you’re not that in to the sounds just skip to 2:00 when the piano player starts playing with one hand and muffling inside of the piano with the other one – first time I’ve ever seen that done, makes it sound a bit more like a guitar. Check out some RH Factor feat D’Angelo below that.