Moment to Moment is a studio album by trumpeter Roy Hargrove, his only featuring string orchestra arrangements, recorded on October 4–10, 1999, and released the following year by Verve Records.[1][2][3]
Hargrove had a long-held desire to record an album with strings, having been familiar with the string albums of singer Shirley Horn, trumpeter Clifford Brown (Clifford Brown with Strings, 1955), and vibraphonist Milt Jackson; with the right arrangers, Hargrove believed that the album could be beautiful and memorable enough to reach audiences outside of only jazz listeners.[4]
All About Jazz's Mark Corroto stated: Hargrove has reached a jazz pinnacle, his story has made the cover of jazz magazines and this With Strings record is his parade. [...] A first-class recording and beautiful sound mark Hargrove's sophistication as an artist. He has painted the final scene to a very heartbreaking melancholy film in my mind."[6]
Richard S. Ginell of AllMusic wrote: "The leadoff track 'You Go to My Head' is gorgeous; Hargrove plays soulfully and inwardly, and pianist Larry Willis's arrangement is emotionally satisfying without being cloying. However, the disc continues on and on in this fashion, one tune seeming to blend into another, one arrangement sounding like the next... Hargrove tries his own hand at string arranging on his composition 'Natural Wonders'; the results are noticeably less sophisticated and not as richly-harmonized as the others on the disc. [...] Hargrove's undoubted sincerity and musicality go only a limited distance over the 68-minute span of the CD before simply repeating themselves out."[1]
The album received mixed reviews from The Austin Chronicle author Jay Trachtenberg, who wrote: "Hargrove, heard on both trumpet and the round-toned flugelhorn, is controlled and downright elegant; Moment to Moment provides a gorgeous soundtrack for a romantic candlelight dinner. This is all well and good, but repeated listens to the album leave one with a sense of it being little more than dispassionate, audio wallpaper."[7]
A brief by BBC Radio 3 declared that the album proves Hargrove "is the first rank of jazz ballad players".[8]
Doug Ramsey, writing for JazzTimes, noted of the album: "His variations maintain the mood and intent of the originals, brilliantly so on 'How Insensitive' and 'I Fall in Love Too Easily.' [...] Hargrove arranged 'Natural Wonders,' which holds its own in the company of classics".[9]
Tim Perlich of Toronto's Now newspaper described the album as "a lushly orchestrated set of romantic ballads".[10]
In a New York Times interview with journalist Marcus J. Moore, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire praised the album's track "Always and Forever", commenting that it "might be the deepest ballad performance I've ever heard on trumpet", and added: "The strings are lush and not in the way – just enough to hold Roy. [...] His phrasing is quiet and patient, like he's talking to himself and letting us eavesdrop. Every note holds something: pain, humor, the blues, urgency. [...] That kind of vulnerability isn't always safe for us. But Roy made it cool."[11]
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