Of all the “younger” jazz artists out there, Robert Glasper has the strongest credentials to be the one to bridge the gap between aging “purists” and the millennial hipsters/urbanites. His bonafides include stints with Nnenna Freelon and Roy Hargrove, but it was his pair of R&B-ish Black Radio Experiments that not only won him a Grammy but the attention and accolades of people not usually akin to heading to jazz clubs.
This time out, he brings his acoustic team of Vicent Archer/b and Diamond Reid/dr to perform a “live” show at Capitol Studios, mixing jazz standards, material from his BRE albums and some modern covers to bridge three different worlds and word views and succeeds impressively. The melding of Glasper’s jazz inquisitiveness on the piano with a restlessly contrasting drumming by Reid makes for a very hip read of “Stella By Starlight” while Glasper takes you to his church with the tambourine brining out the Holy Spirit on a funky yet subtle “Reckoner.” The acoustic read of “I Don’t Even Care” has the trio bringing out tones and shades that weren’t observable on the more electronic read, while Musiq Soulchild does some wonderful and modern soulful singing on” So Beautiful.” The men show their individual chops and wares on the 13 minute “In Case You Forgot” while together ther show the deft interplay of a double play combination on ”Levels.” Harry Belafonte makes a spoken cameo, and the gentle gait of “I’m Dying of Thirst” closes this disc with you wondering if Glasper and company is slowly creating a new canon of jazz standards for the 21st Century.
Blue Note Records