I wish I knew more about Roy Hargrove.

For sax players I take the time to listen to Dexter Gordon
more than Sonny Rollins. Don Sirley comes to mind as
a moody rather than up tempo pianist.

But as a soloist, I'm hard pressed to think of anyone
better than Martin Taylor's guitar. Maybe it's because I use
those mp3's to test my speaker builds. I'm most familiar
with Taylor's "Artistry" album.

Aside from 'sweet bands', I have just about everything the
English bandleader John Dankworth ever did. His "Zodiac Variations"
and "What The Dickens"-- themes on the works of Charles Dickens
would qualify as mood pieces. Claire Fisher and Lenny Niehouse are
well known for extended works as well.

Zodiac Variations is an example of 'classical big band music'
in that Dankworth gives notes on the compositional technique
used for each sign. Dankworth is less well-known than his
wife Cleo Laine. Together they did a recording called
"Shakespeare And All That Jazz: lyrics from Shakespeare plays
with melodies by Ellington from his Shakespeare work and
Dankworth originals.

There are a jillion things to remember for someone who has
listened this music a whole life. But I always return to
these.

Most of this is from the early 60's.

Recently I've been catching up on dvd those episodes of
the Star Trek spinoff Deep Space Nine which I had not seen.
I was amazed and delighted to find they had incorprated a character called Vic Fontaine played and sung by James Darren (yes, the one
from the Gidget movies.) The character is a holographic fantasy
replete with tuxedo, slot machines and the whole look of
1962 Vegas. This is a way to communicate those pop tunes
to several new generations.

That said, the best thing in the current market has been the
rip it up style of The Brian Setzer Orchestra.