GLASPER, ROBERT

Superlatieven schieten tekort wat we inmiddels terug hebben gekregen over het nieuwe album van keyboardist, producer Robert Glasper! Zijn Black Radio wordt door een ieder al door het spreekwoordelijke ringetje gehaald, en zeer zeker niet onterecht, want de plaat is een regelrechte beauty. Zowel toonaangevende bladen als Rolling Stone en Billboard bekronen dit album al als een ‘Golden One’ voor de toekomst. Ook hier zullen de reviews allemaal lovend zijn; tenminste...mogen we de vele e-mailtjes die we al hebben gekregen, mogen geloven! Niemand kan meer heen om The Robert Glasper Experiment en diens Black Radio!

(emi)

On February 28, 2012, Robert Glasper Experiment will release Black Radio (Blue Note Records/EMI), a future landmark album that boldly stakes out new musical territory and transcends any notion of genre, drawing from jazz, hip hop, R&B and rock, but refusing to be pinned down by any one tag. The first full-length album from the GRAMMY-nominated keyboardist’s electric Experiment band—saxist Casey Benjamin, bassist Derrick Hodge, and drummer Chris Dave—Black Radio also features many of Glasper’s famous friends from the spectrum of urban music, seamlessly incorporating appearances from a jaw-dropping roll call of special guests including Erykah Badu, Bilal, Lupe Fiasco, Lalah Hathaway, Shafiq Husayn (Sa-Ra), KING, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Mos Def, Musiq Soulchild, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Stokley Williams (Mint Condition).

Throughout the Experiment wears its eclecticism on its sleeve, presenting new collaborative originals and surprising cover songs. They transform the Afro-Cuban standard “Afro Blue” with Erykah Badu, Sade’s “Cherish The Day” with Lalah Hathaway, David Bowie’s “Letter to Hermione” with Bilal, and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with Casey Benjamin’s vocoder vocal.

Glasper has long kept one foot planted firmly in jazz and the other in hip hop. His gig at the Blue Note Jazz Club earlier this year became a freestyle jam session when Kanye West, Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco crashed the stage. The Los Angeles Times once wrote that “it’s a short list of jazz pianists who have the wherewithal to drop a J Dilla reference into a Thelonious Monk cover, but not many jazz pianists are Robert Glasper,” adding that “he’s equally comfortable in the worlds of hip-hop and jazz,” and praising the organic way in which he “builds a bridge between his two musical touchstones.”