Roy Hargrove Dead at Forty-Nine [by David Lehman]

The most talented trumpeter
of his generation,
who played
for us in Albany,
used to hang out
at Smalls, that
low-ceilinged cellar
near us where
he proved he could sing,
a bonus,
because we came for his trumpet
“Whisper Not,”
and when Cyrille Aimée sings “Love for Sale”
and he plays, it’s as if
he’s Coltrane to her Johnny Hartman