The Sages of Future Soul featuring Eli Goldstein (trumpet soloist), 2023
Year: 2009/2023 Duration: 6:00 Difficulty: Medium Advanced
Originally performed and recorded live by the Roy Hargrove Quintet in December 2009 at the KNKX Public Radio Studios.
A full jazz ensemble arrangement featuring trumpet soloist was arranged for the Sages of Future Soul in 2023. Performed and recorded by The Sages of Future Soul Live at Clementine Cafe in Harrisonburg, VA in August 2023.
Program Notes
The composition entitled Soulful was created by one of the most influential composers and jazz trumpet players of any century, Mr. Roy Hargrove. Besides his other seminal work Strasbourg/St. Denis, Soulful stands as one of Hargrove’s most enduring compositions, yet, he never recorded it himself for commercial release. Despite the original recording of the composition only existing as a lone YouTube video, Soulful is, without a doubt, one of the most spellbinding and gorgeous jazz standards of all of music history. As an admirer of both Roy’s music and playing, I knew that I would love to arrange his music in some capacity and hopefully, honor his memory upon his tragic passing in 2018. In 2023, I decided to arrange Soulful for the Sages of Future Soul, a jazz ensemble I co-founded, lead and write for. The arrangement begins by featuring bass trombone and bass clarinet, as an ultimate nod to the fantastic bass playing of Roy Hargrove Quintet bassist, Ameen Saleem. The composition then grows into a more familiar setting with the trumpet featured prominently, along with some accompanying solos by the alto sax, clarinet and flute. The solo section provides ample space for most sections of the ensemble to improvise, and the backgrounds heard towards the end of the section is a direct quote of the beautiful piano comping figures played by Jon Baptiste in the original recording. The full trumpet section then receives the limelight, with a soli that features harmonized fragments of Roy’s improvised solo, separated into the four different trumpet parts of the ensemble. After a quick drum solo a la Montez Coleman and a recapitulation of the main melody, the arrangement blossoms into full big band orchestration, then dissapates to a lone piano solo. None of us will ever truly understands the massive contributions that Roy Hargrove has added to realms of jazz improvisation and composition, but it has been the honor of my lifetime to arrange Soulful into the big band medium. I hope all fans of Roy enjoy this rendition of Soulful!
Shawn W. Davern 