Jazz Prodigy Roy Hargrove’s Legacy Lives on Through His Music

Dallas has always been a hotbed for the performing arts, and in the 1980s, no part of the city lived up to that billing more than the south side. Singing, dancing, producing, and beyond, if you were looking for entertainers, South Dallas was your first and, in most cases, only stop. During those days, talent oozed from every nook, cranny, crack, and crevice, and no event captured that truth more than The Roosevelt Cluster Concert. Held annually on the campus of Roosevelt High School, the concert brought neighborhood students from elementary through high school together for a performance extravaganza. In the summer of 1984, Band Director Dean Hill, a man who would become an institution in DISD academic circles, led the contingent of youngsters from William Brown Elementary into this prestigious affair. Hill was excited, and why wouldn’t he be? His students had rehearsed, drilled, and prepared, and just like a doting parent, he was looking forward to seeing them embrace what he hoped would be the first of many of life’s shining moments. Everything was going according to plan until the moment he got the word no director wants to hear on show day. His lead trumpeter, the one...