Keyon Harrold

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An excellent jazz trumpeter, Keyon Harrold has spent some of his career playing with crossover and rap artists.

Born and raised in Ferguson, Missouri where he was one of 16 children, Harrold grew up in a musical family and graduated from the New School.

Harrold, who was mentored by trumpeter Charles Tolliver, worked with Tolliver’s big band and Gregory Porter but also performed with Common, Jay-Z, Beyonce, 50 Cent and others.

He contributed all of the trumpet playing for Don Cheadle in the fictional Miles Davis film Miles Ahead and has recorded with Billy Harper, David Sanborn, James Carter, Derrick Hodge, Otis Brown III, Christian Sands, and Marcus Strickland in addition to leading two albums of his own.

Keyon Harrold is featured on his relatively mellow “Her Beauty Through My Eyes” at Bird’s Basement in Melbourne, Australia, leading a quintet that also includes guitarist Nir Felder, pianist Shedrick Mitchell, bassist Dominique Sanders, and drummer Emanuel Harrold; the trumpeter takes an energetic and well-constructed solo.

-Scott Yanow

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