Trumpet-player Roy Hargrove believes that people can feel when art is sincere, when jazz is true, when you give everything for what you do – and then they easily connect to it: “There is always something for people in jazz; there is always something people can relate to,” he said in a Jazz FM interview. His dedication to art is complete and satisfying: “Giving 150% of yourself in music builds your integrity as a person. People spend a lot of time trying to get rich. If you give to your art, then you don’t have to want things. It all comes to you.”
Two problems does Roy Hargrove identify with music today – one of them being that artists are not able to make a living out of their craft: “You make a record, it leaks out, everybody gets it for free. We are forced to make a living playing live. If you want us to make records, then you’ve got to stop getting them for free. Pay for them!,” he appealed, and told stories of acquaintances meeting him in the street and requesting being put in the guest list for live events. The other obstacle, he says, is the young generation not having the past to hold on to, as the period of the 1940s and 1950s is underestimated in the music schools curricula.
“My experience is my music. You go through life and what you play has to do with what you experience in your life,” Roy Hargrove said at the end of this intrerview by Jazz FM’s Tanya Ivanova. You can listen to it using the Audio button above.
