Roy Hargrove and Mulgrew Miller on Resonance

Since its founding in 2008 by George Klabin, Resonance Records has established itself as a valuable resource for jazz lovers of archival recordings. I first became aware of the label with the release in November of 2019 of Hittin’ the Ramp: The Early Years (1936–1943), a seven-CD anthology of recordings of Nat King Cole that preceded his signing with Capitol Records. That was followed almost exactly a year later by the two-CD Bill Evans Live at Ronnie Scott’s. This past Friday, the latest album, In Harmony, was released. This is a two-CD collection of previously unreleased live recordings of duo performances by Mulgrew Miller on piano and Roy Hargrove, alternating between trumpet and flugelhorn.

More specifically, the recordings were made at two different concerts. The first took place on January 15, 2006 at the Merkin Concert Hall of the Kaufman Music Center in New York City. The second was held on November 9, 2007 on the campus of Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, at the Williams Center for the Arts. To some extent this album constitutes a memorial. Miller died at the age of 57 on May 29, 2013. A little more than five years later, Hargrove died at the tragic age of 49 on November 2, 2018. This is the first album of Hargrove’s performances to be released since his death. Ironically, one of the tracks on In Harmony is a performance of Benny Golson’s “I Remember Clifford,” his memorial tribute to trumpeter Clifford Brown, who died in an automobile accident at the age of 25; but there is definitely no “shadow of death” hovering over the sessions from which the tracks of this album were taken.

These two sessions are somewhat unique in the context of the usual performances given by both of the players. In Harmony is now the only recording in the Hargrove discography that does not include a drummer. That establishes a certain intimacy that one seldom encounters is jazz sessions. Miller’s catalog, on the other hand, includes a few duo performances, as well as one solo album. As a result there is almost a sense of an understated private conversation in the thirteen tracks in this collection.

For the most part the performances at both of the sessions were familiar standards. Only Hargrove appears as composer with his “Blues for Mr. Hill,” which is probably written in memory of blues singer Z. Z. Hill, who, along B. B. King, was one of Hargrove’s early influences. On the more adventurous side of straight-ahead jazz, there are two tracks of Dizzy Gillespie (“Con Alma” and “Ow!”) and two of Thelonious Monk (“Monk’s Dream” and “Ruby, My Dear”). The Monk tracks are consecutive, suggesting that they may have been performed back-to-back as a memorial tribute. Regardless of background, however, there is considerable inventiveness to be found on every track in this collection.