Approaching Standards

by Dan CrossA poorly put-together compilation, Approaching Standards serves only to illuminate Hargrove's failure to understand ballad material on his earlier recordings. Ballads dominate the album, accounting for seven of the album's ten tracks; Hargrove generally interprets them in a cool, emotionally detached manner which can be quite off-putting. Compiled from four albums whose recording dates span from 1989 to 1993, Approaching Standards somewhat more encouragingly also documents Hargrove's growth as a musician. "Everything I Have is Yours/Dedicated to You," taken from the 1993 recording Of Kindred Souls, finds Hargrove in a more mature frame of mind, and points toward the much better albums he would soon make.