1994 · Album
Approaching Standards
Recorded 2000 · Verve Records · Produced by Richard Seidel
When a Master Musician Meets the Great American Songbook
Hargrove strips these standards down to their essence, letting the melodies breathe.
Roy Hargrove's Approaching Standards finds him doing exactly what the title suggests—moving toward the jazz canon with respect but not reverence. This is a straightforward record: trumpet, rhythm section, and songs that have been played thousands of times before. What matters is how Hargrove approaches them. He doesn't try to reinvent these tunes or add unnecessary modern flourishes. Instead, he treats them like a conversation partner who deserves careful listening. His tone is warm and direct, occasionally contemplative, never showy.
The album sits somewhere in the middle of Hargrove's discography—not an early breakthrough, not a late-career statement, but a focused project at a point when he had the skill and taste to engage with material this fundamental. It's the kind of record that works best if you come to it already knowing Hargrove's voice as a player. These aren't the standards that will blow your mind with novelty or arrangement tricks. They're standards played by someone who understands why they endured in the first place. If you want to hear Hargrove's personality most clearly, his other work—particularly his funk and soul-influenced recordings—shows more range and experimentation.
But if you want to understand what makes him a serious jazz musician, Approaching Standards delivers that lesson quietly and without fuss. There's something honest about a record this unadorned. No tricks, no ego. Just a musician with something to say about songs that matter, played well enough that you hear them fresh despite knowing them so well. It's not his most essential recording, but it's the work of someone who knows his place in jazz history and respects the conversation he's joining.
Who's playing
