Image: Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte
The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art has announced 'Tribute to Roy Hargrove ft Curtis Taylor', an August jazz event featuring award-winning trumpeter Curtis Taylor and the Ziad Jazz Quartet. The concert is scheduled for Friday, August 7, 2026, at 6 PM and 8:15 PM, with each set running 75 minutes and no intermission. Tickets are listed at $25 for Bechtler members and $30 for nonmembers.
The program is framed as an evening in honor of Roy Hargrove, the jazz innovator and two-time Grammy Award winner whose playing and composing are described by the museum as having blended hard bop, soul, funk and hip-hop influences. In the announcement, Hargrove is credited with reshaping modern jazz through an expressive sound and a creative approach that made him one of the genre’s most influential voices. Curtis Taylor is presented as the lead artist paying tribute to that legacy through trumpet performance and improvisation.
Taylor will appear with Ziad Rabie on saxophone, Sean Higgins on piano, William Ledbetter on bass and Rick Dior on drums. The Bechtler’s announcement emphasizes the group’s musicianship as central to reviving Hargrove’s sound for the audience. The concert is part of 'Jazz at the Bechtler', the museum’s recurring live-music programming, which in this instance places a jazz tribute within the context of a modern art institution’s cultural calendar.
The museum’s announcement does not offer a broader retrospective or exhibition tie-in, but it does situate the event as a focused musical salute to a major figure in contemporary jazz. Hargrove’s reputation for crossing stylistic boundaries is highlighted as the conceptual frame for the program, which uses trumpet-led performance to reflect the breadth of his influence. The language of the release presents the evening not as a general concert, but as a specific homage built around Hargrove’s recorded and performed legacy.
The event is listed at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, North Carolina. Doors are set to open at 5:30 PM for the 6 PM concert and at 7:45 PM for the 8:15 PM concert. The museum notes that the evening is supported in part by the City of Charlotte, and that 'Jazz at the Bechtler' is presented by Classica Homes.
This announcement also comes through the museum’s email communications, which promote the August jazz season with the Roy Hargrove tribute as a featured offering. The source material makes clear that the program is intended as a live-performance event rather than an exhibition, and that the museum is using the format to spotlight a figure whose cross-genre approach continues to resonate within jazz performance today.
