Robert Glasper's New Album Is Not Jazz. Who Cares?

By Sean J. O'Connell Wed., Mar. 21 2012 at 5:00 AM

Mike Schreiber

Thirty-three-year-old Robert Glasper has been putting out fairly straight-forward jazz records since the mid-'00s. Last month, however, Houston-bred, New York-based pianist released a R&B and hip-hop indebted album, Black Radio, under the moniker the Robert Glasper Experiment. This has some jazz fans feeling left out.

"I like Robert Glasper's new CD," tweeted critic Ted Gioia. "But it has about as much jazz content as the Utah Jazz."

Glasper's last release, 2009's Double-Booked, was split evenly between his acoustic jazz trio and the electrified, beat-heavy Experiment. So it shouldn't come as too much of a shock that Glasper has dedicated both metaphorical sides of his newest album to his experimental project. What seems to surprise (disappoint?) people is his bid for commercial success.

Black Radio is a jazz album -- in instrumentation, anyway -- with piano, bass and drums at its core. But it also prominently features Casey Benjamin's vocoder and a boatload of radio-friendly guest vocalists like Erykah Badu, Lupe Fiasco and Yasiin Bey, formerly Mos Def. We're guessing that's what makes it not jazz-friendly, right?

Half of the tracks are originals while the other half consists of an eclectic mix of covers (Sade, Bowie, Nirvana) and a lone standard ("Afro Blue"). But probably the biggest missing jazz element is ~~any~~ much in the way of instrumental solos. Instead the album is a slow-burning collection of modern R&B by a jazz musician, released by Blue Note, a jazz label. It prompted The New York Times to ask: "is it jazz?"

And frankly, the answer is no, not really. But the more important question is: Who cares?

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Jsilver_123

No instrumental solos? What about Casey Benjamin's alto sax solo on "Cherish the Day"? Or Glasper's piano solo during "Why Do We Try"?

CultofSOC

Wow, Jsilver, you are quick. Five hours ago I was going to sleep.

There is a scarcity of solos on the album but you are right, those ones are there. And I particularly liked the solo he took on the Letterman performance.

He also said this in a recent JazzWax interview:

"JW: Even though the album goes off in a range of soul-chill directions, your acoustic piano is ever-present, presiding over all experimentation, yes?RG: Exactly. And that was the point. I didn’t want to always have to take a piano solo to be heard. Piano solos don’t always fit on everything. And to be honest, solos turn some people off [laughs]. I wanted to strike a balance, always be there in the background." So I was primarily trying to highlight that it was a concious decision to leave out solos and I don't know if the result is balanced.

And that JazzWax interview is really good.

Phrasing will be fixed.

Thanks for pointing out those solos. Casey Benjamin is an essential part of that band both in sound and style. I'm going to see if the people at SuperCuts can give me his hair-do.