With piercing high notes and a keen sense of rhythm, jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove stepped onto Yoshi’s San Francisco’s stage on Jan. 12.

“He’s a hell of a horn player,” says Sonny Buxton, KCSM’s Jazz 91’s mid-day jazz co-host.

Hargrove expresses tradition, lineage and legacy with surprising freedom through his performances.

This sort of freedom erases styles and makes note choices less important than the bravura of the improvisational act.

According to Jeffry Glenn, a San Francisco attorney, “This is exactly the music that I like.”

Hargrove, a native of Waco, Texas, was a trumpet prodigy inspired by gospel, R&B and funk.

Wynton Marsalis discovered Hargrove before he finished high school at Booker T. Washington School for the Performing Arts in Dallas. Hargrove’s talents quickly led him to Boston’s famous Berkelee College of Music and recording his first album at age 20.

Hargrove made a name for himself when he hit the New York City jazz scene in the late ‘80s and performed all over the world with many of the jazz greats.

Still standing 20 years later, Hargrove’s quintet, which includes Justin Robinson, Sullivan Fortner, Ameen Saleem and Montez Coleman, exudes the confidence to establish its own straight forward voice in a well-worn genre.

Alto Saxophonist Robinson honed his sound while attending the High School of Music and Arts at LaGuardia High School in New York. Crafting his own distinctive sound, Robinson has collaborated with eminent artists such as the Harper Brothers, Abbey Lincoln and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.

Alongside Robinson was Fortner, a native of New Orleans who by the age of nine was playing for various church choirs.

Fortner has been privileged to study, perform and record with Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Slide Hampton and many others.

“The piano player just knocks me out,” says Buxton.

Seasoned bassist Saleem is known for mixing his jazz education with his ear for the street to form cutting edge rhythms. Originally from Washington, D.C., Saleem graduated from Duke Ellington School of the Arts and has two degrees in Music Performance, including a B.A. from North Carolina Central University and a Master’s from CUNY Queens College in Flushing, New York.

Known as the man who propels the quintet, drummer Coleman is a native of East St. Louis. He has been featured on Russell Malone’s 2010 release “Triple Play” and is often associated with Wynton Marsalis, Russell Gunn and Peter Martin.

“Roy Hargrove and his quintet were superb,” says Michel Rabouin of San Jose.

As a recording artist, Hargrove’s output is as remarkable as his live performances.

Hargrove’s recording projects range from Latin jazz to a Charlie Parker tribute. Hargrove has worked with others artists that range from Dave Brubeck to Erykah Badu.

According to NPR’s RH Factor, Hargrove’s fusion project that merged R&B and hip-hop mainstream with jazz created a lot of buzz.

Hargrove has received two Grammy Awards; his Cuban-based band “Crisol” with piano legend Jesus “Chucho” Valdes and drummer Horatio “El Negro” Hernandez won the Best Latin Jazz Performance Grammy in 1997, and “Directions in Music” with Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker won Best Instrumental Jazz Album in 2002.