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Robert Glasper interview: Jazz, hip hop and the Experiment

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RobertGlasperbyMetteMuhli1 600x360 Robert Glasper interview: Jazz, hip hop and the Experiment | iCrates Magazine

To some, jazz and hip hop are kindred spirits; the cultural output of deprived black America. To others, modern hip hop’s chart domination and the jazz industry’s comparative demise means they’re more alienated than ever before. In early 2012, the Robert Glasper Experiment released Black Radio, an ambitious attempt to redraw the boundaries between the genres. There’s forever been a pioneering spirit at jazz’s heart – but while sonically adventurous records by Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock are now revered as seminal, deliberate movement towards the mainstream chart is invariably scorned. We met pianist, composer and producer Robert Glasper to develop a clearer understanding of how he regards his own crossover and learn if the success of Black Radio has changed things.

Born in Houston 1978, Robert Glasper enjoyed a rich musical upbringing. Studying piano from a young age he soon began performing gospel in church, playing love songs at weddings and receiving jazz lessons at performing arts high school. Aged 19, he left Houston to study in New York City where he met aspiring soul singer Bilal on his first day of college. The pair soon started attending Wetlands, The Roots’ weekly jam sessions, where they met and later performed alongside Common, Mos Def, Q Tip and Nas. It was Glasper’s intense exposure to hip hop between 1997 and 2001 that proved fundamental in his musical development; a four-year period that culminated in the release of Bilal’s debut album 1st Born Second, in which Glasper earned his hip hop stripes.

The following decade saw Glasper lead a double life, releasing four jazz piano records while also moonlighting as a musical arranger for the likes of Mos Def, Q-Tip and Kanye West. Hip hop being a genre dominated by rappers and star producers Glasper remained peripheral to the limelight, quietly acquiring the industry reputation and connections he needed for a project like Black Radio, which potently combines not only jazz and hip hop, but funk, neo-soul and R’n'B. In the end, to produce a record so flush with high profile collaborations, Glasper simply took bandmates Casey Benjamin, Derrick Hodge and Chris Dave out to a beach front studio in California and called in favours from some old friends. This was the Robert Glasper Experiment.

“I chose each of the people because I already know how they work, they’re friends of mine and I’ve work with them in some capacity before; so I knew it wasn’t going to be difficult with anybody. It was just a matter of them coming along to the studio, and rolling with it.”

RobertGlasperbyMetteMuhli4 Robert Glasper interview: Jazz, hip hop and the Experiment | iCrates Magazine

“When it was an original song, I’d email an idea on piano and they’d then write to it, then when we got to the studio they’d show me what they’d got. I’d be like ‘cool….let’s try a take!’ or ‘let’s play it through, yeah that’s the vibe, on the bridge let’s open it up’. Michelle [Ndegeocello] couldn’t make it to the studio, she recorded something and sent it back to me, so we just played in the studio with the vocal in our headphones.”

Erykah [Badu] was on the Rock the Bells Tour so we had to await her return, which meant postponing the album for a month. We recorded the music, then I took it to her, she recorded her vocal and then I just recorded a new piano part. It was generally very easy. Everything was very loose, very relaxed, very organic and that’s why it feels that way. We flew everyone to LA, the hotel was on the beach, the studio was nearby; everybody was comfortable and hanging out.”


Robert Glasper Experiment feat. Erykah Badu – “Afro Blue” (Black Radio, Blue Note, 2012)

When we met Glasper ahead of his show in Berlin, the Experiment’s line up had altered slightly: busy fulfilling touring duties with D’Angelo drummer Chris Dave was replaced by Mark Colenburg. The band’s start was postponed and when they eventually took the stage just after midnight, they rolled straight into an exquisite, funked-out rendition of “Acknowledgement” from John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. The crowd erupted as vocalist Casey Benjamin bared his Cheshire cat grin, purring the piece’s unmistakable, three-word refrain through vocoder and key-tar.

On stage, the Experiment slink from track to track via lengthy grooves and improvisations. “No rehearsals” Glasper stresses: “It’s called the ‘Experiment’ because we literally experiment on stage, so much stuff is made up. Even when recording the record we just played around a little with the artist then hit record, so every song on the record was recorded in one take, except ‘Black Radio’ with Mos Def because he wanted to change the tempo of shit. Every other song: one take. I’d put some outtakes out, but we don’t have any!”


Robert Glasper Experiment feat. King – “Move Love” (Black Radio, Blue Note, 2012)

Nowadays, an album tends to be a cohesive representation of a band’s strongest material. Having entered the chart’s higher reaches with Black Radio, did the lack of opportunity to replicate and better the ideas which develop on the road frustrate Glasper at all? “Not really, no. Honestly, without trying to sound a certain way, we come up with so much dope shit, every night, and it’s always something different, that I’ll forget, and we’ll just move onto the next night. I rarely listen to bootlegs, I barely listen back to recordings of our shows. But it doesn’t prevent progress because our intuition develops. I love it when something evolves, and it feels so organic, I have so much trust in these guys.”

RobertGlasperbyMetteMuhli6 Robert Glasper interview: Jazz, hip hop and the Experiment | iCrates Magazine

When performing Glasper perches side-saddle between grand piano and Fender Rhodes, smattering chords and snippets of melody, but it’s the work of his drummer Mark Colenburg that steers the group rhythmically. Colenburg dictates proceedings, equally comfortable improvising in triplets as grooving on fatter hip hop beats.

The band’s increased ability to float between genre means they’re able to attract a more wide-ranging audience and Glasper’s cites a recent show in Los Angeles as indicative of this change, where he witnessed audience numbers increase twenty-fold. However, beyond his J Dilla T-shirt and the woolly hat sat loosely atop his head, Glasper is every bit the jazz musician. As an ambassador for the genre, what elements of jazz music would he most like to resonate with his newfound audience?

“Well firstly the improvisation, half of the show is always made up, even when we go into grooves. We listen so well to each other and we catch onto things very fast. It doesn’t take time for things to come together, everybody’s listening and it takes about a second to lock into something. People ask “what is that groove?” and I have to say “I dunno”.


Robert Glasper Experiment feat. Musiq Soulchild and Chrisette Michele – “Ah Yeah” (Black Radio, Blue Note, 2012)

“Also solos, we take solos here and there. We try not to overdo it. I am a jazz musician and even I don’t want to hear a solo on every song! So while we’re improvising and there’s bass solos, piano solos, you’re getting jazz, but at the same time you’re getting the familiarity of song. I think with this approach we can feed more than one mouth, when you just do stuff for jazz cats, you just do stuff for jazz cats. But if you also play songs that people know, and let them breathe, you can also do something for people who don’t like jazz.”

“If I can feed the soul people, the jazz people and the R’n'B people and the hip hop people and the rock people, the gospel people, whoever, I’d feed everybody if I could!”

“The honest truth is, not everybody likes jazz, just like not everybody likes hip hop. But if I can satisfy both then cool! These are all natural things to me, it’s not something I am really trying to do, because people can hear when something’s forced, you can hear honesty.”

Following on from the success of Black Radio Blue Note have released Black Radio Recovered: The Remix EP, which is out now.

Photos by Mette Muhli.

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