Ten years after the release of his seminal, GRAMMY-winning Black Radio, Robert Glasper has announced Black Radio III. The album is out February 25 via Loma Vista Recordings.
Arriving alongside the announcement is a new single, “Black Superhero,” featuring Killer Mike, BJ The Chicago Kid, and Big K.R.I.T. The official music video first premiered yesterday via broadcast channels BET Soul, BET Jams, MTVu, MTV Live, and Yo! MTV. Shot in Los Angeles and directed by award-winning director/filmmaker, Charlie Buhler, the video takes viewers through a series of vignettes that highlight real-life Black heroes who live in and work for their communities.
On creating the music video, Buhler says, “‘Black Superhero’ is a visual love letter to the Black community. It’s an ode to our strength, vibrancy, and joy. We have struggled, and yet we are still here, and not only are we here, but we are so much more than the adversity heaped upon us. I am grateful to Robert and the team at Loma Vista for trusting me with such a powerful and important song, and everyone who came together to help bring the concept to life. It was a true labor of love.”
Like its predecessors, the new studio album celebrates Black joy, love, and resilience and features Grammy-winning single “Better Than I Imagined” featuring H.E.R + Meshell Ndgeocello and “Shine” featuring D Smoke and Tiffany Gouché. Black Radio III’s guests also include Q-Tip, Jennifer Hudson, H.E.R. Yebba, Common, Ty Dolla $ign, Esperanza Spalding, Ant Clemons, India.Arie, and more.
Glasper mused on the project, sharing “I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Black Radio than by releasing Black Radio 3. To debut a live performance of ‘Black Superhero’ on The Tonight Show with some of my own heroes is really special to me. Hopefully, it inspires more to come.”
Tune in live to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on January 17 for a special MLK Day performance from Robert Glasper, performing “Black Superhero” with Rapsody, BJ The Chicago Kid, Amir Sulaiman, and DJ Jazzy Jeff, backed by The Roots.
In October 2018, Robert Glasper settled into the Blue Note club in NYC for a month-long residency several nights of which featured the new dream team collective R+R=NOW with Glasper on keys, Terrace Martin on synthesizer, vocoder, and alto saxophone, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah on trumpet, Derrick Hodge on bass, Taylor McFerrin on synthesizer, and Justin Tyson on drums. The band had recently released their debut album Collagically Speaking and the music had already taken on expansive new dimensions in concert as evidenced on R+R=NOW Live, a thrilling live recording with standout tracks including “Respond,” “Change of Tone,” “Resting Warrior,” and a cover of Kendrick Lamar’s “How Much a Dollar Cost.”
Dream team band R+R=NOW—featuring Robert Glasper on keyboards, Terrace Martin on synthesizer and vocoder, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah on trumpet, Derrick Hodge on bass, Taylor McFerrin on synth and beatbox, and Justin Tyson on drums—will release their debut album Collagically Speaking (Blue Note) on June 15. The album is available for pre-order today on vinyl, CD or download, along with the new single “Colors In The Dark” which can be streamed or downloaded now. The band’s DNA is evident in the song’s woozy soul with Martin's robo-coo floating like a hallucination over a lush scene rooted by Hodge’s warm bass and featuring a breezy Glasper piano solo that crests in a sudden burst from Tyson.
Okayplayer wrote that “R+R=NOW consists of some of the brightest and baddest musicians in the game today,” adding that the album’s first single “Change Of Tone” “finds R+R=NOW fluidly showcasing their individual sounds as a cohesive blend… expressing hope, love, confidence, and resiliency through their respective melodies.” Stereogum declared the song “a powerful introduction to the band, highlighting each members’ skill and spirit,” while Paste called it “a hybrid encompassing all of black music—hip-hop, R&B, jazz, soul, funk—with its layered instrumental laying out black excellence.”
In an era when every headline carries some new horror or fresh worry, we need music that can clap back with immediacy, skill, and heart. We need a band so at home in its skin that it can play without ego and lead with love—artists whose very existence attests to resilience and hope. We need R+R=NOW, a supergroup assembled by Glasper but functionally egalitarian, in no small part because its members are visionary players, composers, and producers on their own. This genre-mashing outfit moves as one and, as their name reveals, with great purpose.
“R+R stands for ‘Reflect’ and ‘Respond’,” says Glasper. The idea came to him via Nina Simone while he was coproducing Nina Revisited, a companion album to the 2015 film What Happened, Miss Simone? Facing backlash for her politics, Simone was asked, more or less, why she didn't just shut up and sing. Her answer: “an artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” Glasper adds: “When you reflect what's going on in your time and respond to that, you can't not be relevant. So ‘R’ plus ‘R’ equals ‘NOW’.”
In that spirit, Collagically Speaking isn't some wonky thesis on the state of the nation. It’s a raw document that seamlessly adheres neo-soul to future-funk, West Coast jazz of the moment to astral electronica, instrumental hip-hop to musique concrète, avant-garde to classical—these are single-take songs, written live in the room, that go wherever this formidable crew's mood goes. Guest voices get caught in that mix as well: actors Omari Hardwick (Power) and Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Expendables); actress Amanda Seales (Insecure); MCs Stalley and yasiin bey (f.k.a. Mos Def); and singers Amber Navran (of Moonchild) and Goapele. The themes that bind it all together are both spoken and inferred: romantic love, universal love, systemic bigotry, the women's movement, quiet power, wild creativity, personal loss and growth.
“Everyone in this band is a six-foot-tall black guy who didn't come from an affluent background,” says Scott. “In order for us all to make it into that room together, we've had to go through some hell, fight for some things, build up a lot of armor, and do a lot ourselves to forge our realities, to become who we are. We're all very aware of that, so anytime we get together, it's a celebration.”
R+R=NOW will celebrate with U.S. album release shows in Atlanta (Variety Playhouse, June 15), Washington DC (DC Jazz Fest, June 16), and Brooklyn (BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, June 22) before launching an extensive European summer tour. The band will return to the US for additional dates in the late-Summer and Fall including an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on August 3. Further dates will be announced shortly.
R+R=NOW – TOUR DATES
June 15 – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA
June 16 – DC Jazz Fest – Washington DC
June 22 – BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn – Brooklyn, NY
June 28 – Leopolis Jazz Festival – Lviv, Ukraine
June 30 – JazzTM – Timisoara, Romania
July 1 – La Defense – Paris, France
July 4 – Vienne Jazz Festival – Vienne, France
July 5 – ICE Krakow Congress Center – Krakow, Poland
July 6 – Istanbul Jazz Festival – Istanbul, Turkey
July 7 – Locus Festival – Locorotondo, Italy
July 8 – Montreux Jazz Festival – Montreux, Switzerland
July 11 – Vicar Street – Dublin, Ireland
July 13 – North Sea Jazz Festival – Rotterdam, Netherlands
July 14 – Dour Festival – Dour, Belgium
July 15 – Citadel Festival – London, UK
July 16 – Shephed’s Bush Empire – London, UK
July 17 – Nice Jazz Festival – Nice, France
July 18 – Mode Jazz Festival – Molde, Norway
July 20 – Pori Jazz Festival – Pori, Finland
July 22 – Black Sea Jazz Festival – Batumi, Georgia
July 24 – Jazz Festival at Barts – Barcalona, Spain
July 26 – Heineken Jazzaldia – San Sebastian, Spain
3-time GRAMMY-winner Robert Glasper joins forces with the innovative Montreal-based producer KAYTRANADA on Robert Glasper x KAYTRANADA: The ArtScience Remixes, an 8-track EP that reimagines the songs on Robert Glasper Experiment’s acclaimed 2016 album ArtScience, which The FADER called “a freewheeling, genre-agnostic collection of feel-good songs.” The ArtScience Remixes is available now to stream or download, and will be released physically as a Record Store Day vinyl exclusive on April 21. The set features cameos by Don Cheadle, Talib Kweli, Alex Isley, and Iman Omari, and takes the Experiment’s trailblazing blend of R&B, Hip-Hip, and Jazz into new sonic realms. “KAYTANADA is super inventive and musically brave,” says Glasper. “He goes places with the music where most won’t go! Working with him is always so much fun and creatively inspiring.” ArtScience found the Experiment getting down to its essence, with each of the band members—keyboardist Glasper, saxophonist and vocalist Casey Benjamin, bassist Derrick Hodge, and drummer Mark Colenburg—delivering the vocals and sharing in the production and songwriting on the album. “Robert Glasper has been the standard-bearer for jazz music’s fusion with hip-hop, soul, and rock,” wrote Pitchfork. “ArtScience is the Robert Glasper Experiment’s most realized effort…They’ve created their own vibe, one that needed their own voices to truly resonate.”
1 Intro (Robert Glasper x KAYTRANADA) 2:09
2 No One Like You (feat. Alex Isley) [KAYTRANADA Remix] 5:17
3 Thinkin Bout You (feat. Talib Kweli) [KAYTRANADA Remix] 4:24
4 Day To Day (KAYTRANADA Remix) 4:33
5 Name Drop Interlude (Robert Glasper x KAYTRANADA) 1:39
6 Find You (feat. Iman Omari) [KAYTRANADA Remix] 4:40
ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT GETS DOWN TO ITS ESSENCE ON ARTSCIENCE
ECCLECTIC NEW ALBUM SHINES A LIGHT ON EACH OF THE BAND MEMBERS
WITH ROBERT GLASPER, CASEY BENJAMIN, DERRICK HODGE & MARK COLENBURG
SHARING IN PRODUCTION, SONGWRITING & VOCAL DUTIES FOR FIRST TIME
ARTSCIENCE WILL BE RELEASED SEPT. 16 & IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW
LISTEN TO THE ALBUM’S POWERFUL 1st SINGLE “FIND YOU”
NYC RELEASE SHOW AT BOWERY BALLROOM ANNOUNCED FOR OCT. 3
Robert Glasper Experiment has released “Find You,” the powerful first single from the groundbreaking, GRAMMY-winning band’s new album ArtScience (Blue Note). The eclectic album finds the Experiment getting down to its essence, with each of the band members—keyboardist Robert Glasper, saxophonist Casey Benjamin, bassist Derrick Hodge, and drummer Mark Colenburg—delivering the vocals and sharing in the production and songwriting on the album. On ArtScience, the Experiment sounds like a bit of everything that’s vibrant and challenging and great about music woven into a billowing fabric of jazz, funk, soul, rock, hip-hop, blues, disco, electronic, and pop.
ArtScience is available for pre-order now on iTunes and Amazon, and will be released on September 16. Fans who pre-order the download will instantly receive the lead single “Find You” which is also available as a single on streaming services. The album’s cover features an illustration by contemporary artist Hebru Brantley.
After a year of touring that has taken Glasper across North America, South America, Australia, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, The Experiment has announced an NYC album release show at Bowery Ballroom on October 3. Further fall touring will be announced shortly. Visit robertglasper.com for more tour info.
After delivering two star-studded, chart-topping, R&B GRAMMY-winning volumes of their acclaimed Black Radio series on which they collaborated with everyone from Erykah Badu to Norah Jones to Snoop Dogg, the band pondered where to go next. The answer? “You do you,” says Glasper with a chuckle. “People need to hear what the Experiment sounds like, just us—know what our vibe is and can be.”
“Find You” is a jaw-dropping tour-de-force co-written by all four Experiment members that charges through various moods and genres. The track features Hodge on lead vocals as well as a shredding guitar solo by Michael Severson. It closes with an impassioned plea for justice from Glasper’s son Riley. “He’s speaking his mind,” explains Glasper. “He was 5 and the Michael Brown case came on the news and he started going off.” Indeed, Riley speaks to the anger many feel: “It’s not fair! We should let other people live! … Let’s try to make the polices better … like real polices that help. No gun shooting!”
Glasper himself has been keeping incredibly busy as of late. Last year he reconvened his acclaimed acoustic trio for the GRAMMY-nominated album Covered, which was recorded live at Capitol Studios with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid. Glasper has also scored Don Cheadle’s Miles Ahead film, reinterpreted the Miles Davis catalog on Everything Is Beautiful, played keys all over albums from Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly to Anderson .Paak’s Malibu to Maxwell’s blackSUMMERS’night, and is currently collaborating on forthcoming albums from Herbie Hancock, Common, and Mac Miller.
The track listing for ArtScience is as follows:
1. This Is Not Fear (D. Hodge, R. Glasper, C. Benjamin, M. Colenburg)
2. Thinkin Bout You (R. Glasper, D. Hodge, M. Ayers)
3. Day To Day (C. Benjamin)
4. No One Like You (R. Glasper, C. Benjamin)
5. You And Me (R. Glasper, D. Hodge, C. Benjamin, M. Colenburg)
6. Tell Me A Bedtime Story (H. Hancock)
7. Find You (C. Benjamin, D. Hodge, R. Glasper, M. Colenburg)
8. In My Mind (R. Glasper, M. Colenburg)
9. Hurry Slowly (C. Benjamin)
10. Written In Stone (C. Benjamin, J. Lake, R. Glasper, R. Coleman)
11. Let’s Fall In Love (R. Glasper, M. Vorzimer, A. Niambi)
Messing with Miles Davis music is a dangerous proposition. It was necessary for Don Cheadle's biopic Miles Ahead, and with help from Robert Glasper, it's sometimes a successful endeavor. In cinephile circles, biopics are notorious for being underwhelming. Nitpicking can come from multiple directions—with one camp deriding a central lack of tension in the telling of an icon’s familiar story, and another wailing over any dramatic liberty taken with the historical record. Director and actor Don Cheadle’s new film about Miles Davis plunges consciously and energetically into this fraught zone, not least because it dares to call itself Miles Ahead (aka the title of one of Davis’ great big band LPs). That titling move amounts to an open invitation to jazz whiners and/or experts everywhere. As an actor, Cheadle looks and sounds the part. His styling is immaculate, and his voice channels Davis’ famous rasp. But at a level of sound, the two recordings that spring from Cheadle’s project face an even steeper challenge—simply because any re-appropriation of Davis’ music is a more precarious enterprise than acting out the life story. In this light, reporting that the original sounds created for (or inspired by) Cheadle’s film do not immediately register as embarrassments is a form of high praise.
The bulk of this film’s single-disc “original motion picture soundtrack” is built from brief dialogue snippets from the film (which are fine), select Davis cuts presented in full (“So What,” from Kind of Blue, naturally) and a few edits of classic Davis recordings (which should be avoided on general principle). Shaving down clips of Miles is a necessity of cinematic sound-design convention, and isn’t a mark against the film itself. But once you’re listening to a recording, outside the theater, I doubt even the filmmakers behind Miles Ahead would argue that it isn’t more important to seek out a complete, originally issued take. The soundtrack’s most interesting custom songs come toward the end of the album, where the film’s musical supervisor, keyboardist Robert Glasper, has the chance to offer four original pieces inspired by Davis’ protean example. And he makes each opportunity count.
“Junior’s Jam” has a spare funk indebted to Miles’ Jack Johnson sessions (and fortunately the playing of Glasper, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and trumpeter Keyon Harrold doesn’t sound overly imitative). The chill of “Francessence” sounds equally inspired by In a Silent Way as well as latter-day film score work by the likes of Terence Blanchard. There’s a group rave-up meant to connote an active club feel (“What’s Wrong With That?”), and it includes some fiery soprano saxophone playing from onetime Davis band member Wayne Shorter. And album-closer “Gone 2015” features joyously triumphant rhyming from the too-often overlooked Pharoahe Monch.
Working on the film seems to have given Glasper more ideas than could be included on the original soundtrack. So, with the permission of the Davis estate, he’s also created another full-length release that frequently uses the trumpeter’s recorded legacy as point of departure. More than a “remix” album, Everything’s Beautiful shows off Glasper’s skills with sampling, and his talent for creating original work. The pinnacle of the set comes on “Maiysha (So Long),” when Erykah Badu delivers original lyrics over Glasper’s playing and a sample of a Davis performance found on the album Get Up With It. And the keyboardist’s cover of “Milestones” proves that he doesn’t need access to the trumpeter’s tape-vault in order to create valid interpretations.
Glasper’s supporting cast draws from the range of talents he’s also employed on his reliably enjoyable Black Radio series of jazz-meets-R&B fusion recordings. So in addition to Badu’s star turn, we get Phonte rapping over a 9th Wonder production (during “Violets”), as well as the presence of vocalists like Bilal—whose phrasing and register-leaps animate the strut of “Ghetto Walkin’” (built from a groove Davis cut in 1969). The melisma and occasional grit of Ledisi’s voice drives “I’m Leaving You,” a song which also puts the spotlight on the guitar work of latter-day Davis collaborator John Scofield.
A trio of cuts toward the middle of Everything’s Beautiful suffers from feeling less robustly reimagined than the rest of the set—placing a slight drag on momentum. But there’s an easy fix: To experience the full range of the pianist’s Davis-derived thinking, just add Glasper’s contributions from the Miles Ahead soundtrack to Everything’s Beautiful. By being respectful of the artist’s legacy while also making some smart, contemporary production choices, Glasper’s best work proves an an ideal vehicle for paying tribute to an artist who had a firm feel for tradition, but who never stayed fixed in one place for very long.
MILES AHEAD – Original Motion Soundtrack features 11 essential tracks spanning 1956 to 1981, select dialogue from the film featuring Cheadle in character, and five original compositions written, co-written, produced or performed exclusively for MILES AHEAD by Robert Glasper. These include “What’s Wrong with That?” (a jam that closes the movie imagining Cheadle as Miles playing in the present day with guest performers Glasper, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Gary Clark, Jr. and Esperanza Spalding and Antonio Sanchez) and “Gone 2015,” an end-credits song featuring guest verses from rapper Pharoahe Monch. Both the CD and LP packages for MILES AHEAD – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack feature revelatory new liner notes penned by Don Cheadle.
Miles Ahead
Dialogue: “It takes a long time…” (*)
So What
Taylor Made – Taylor Eigisti
Dialogue: “Listen, you talk too goddam much…” (*)
Solea (excerpt)
Seven Steps To Heaven (edit)
Dialogue: “If you gonna tell a story…”(*)
Nefertiti (edit)
Frelon Brun
Dialogue: “Sometimes you have these thoughts…”(*)
Duran (take 6) (edit)
Dialogue: “You own my music…”(*)
Go Ahead John (part two C)
Black Satin (edit)
Dialogue: “Be musical about this shit…”(*)
Prelude #II
Dialogue: “Y’all listening to them…?”(*)
Junior’s Jam – Robert Glasper, Keyon Harrold, Marcus Strickland
Francessence – Robert Glasper, Keyon Harrold, Elena Pinderhughes
Back Seat Betty (excerpt)
Dialogue: “I don’t like the word jazz…” (*)
What’s Wrong With That? – Don Cheadle, Robert Glasper, Gary Clark, Jr., Herbie Hancock, Keyon Harrold, Antonio Sanchez, Esperanza Spaulding, Wayne Shorter
Gone 2015 – Robert Glasper, Keyon Harrold, Pharoahe Monch
(*) from the soundtrack of the film, Don Cheadle as Miles Davis
All other tracks performed by Miles Davis, except where noted
Soundtrack album produced by
Don Cheadle, Steve Berkowitz, Ed Gerrard & Robert Glasper
Soundtrack Executive Producers:
Don Cheadle, Erin Davis, Darryl Porter &, Vince Wilburn
Dr. Lonnie Smith is set to release his first Blue Note album in 45 years with the January 29 release of Evolution. The album marks the return of the legendary Hammond B-3 organ master to the label where he first made a name for himself in the late 1960s, first as a sideman with saxophonist Lou Donaldson on albums including Alligator Bogaloo, and soon after as a leader with his own soul-jazz classics such as Think! and Turning Point.
Special guests on Evolution include pianist Robert Glasper and saxophonist Joe Lovano, who made his own recorded debut as a sideman on Smith’s 1975 album Afrodesia. Smith will perform with his Evolution band at the 2016 NYC Winter Jazzfest in January, and additional tour dates and album details will be announced shortly.
Born in Buffalo, New York in 1942, Smith had an early musical influence in his mother who sparked a love of gospel, blues and jazz music. As a teenager he was introduced to the Hammond organ and began immersing himself in the records of Wild Bill Davis, Bill Doggett and Jimmy Smith as well as paying rapt attention to the church organ. Smith’s first gigs were at the Pine Grill, a Buffalo club where he came to the attention of Lou Donaldson, Jack McDuff and George Benson, eventually joining Benson’s quartet and moving to New York City.
After releasing his debut album Finger Lickin’ Good for Columbia, Smith joined Lou Donaldson’s band and made his first Blue Note appearance on the saxophonist’s hit 1967 album Alligator Boogaloo. Two more Donaldson dates followed (Mr. Shing-A-Ling and Midnight Creeper) before Smith was offered his own Blue Note deal, making his label debut with Think! in 1968. Smith went on to record another four Blue Note albums over the next two years (Turning Point, Move Your Hand, Drives and Live at Club Mozambique) all of which are regarded as soul-jazz classics.
After his first run of Blue Note albums Smith recorded for many labels, most recently his own label Pilgrimage, and his wide-ranging musical tastes have found him covering everyone from John Coltrane to Jimi Hendrix to Beck. Many awards have followed since 1969 when Down Beat named Smith the “Top Organist” of the year, including honors from the Jazz Journalists Association, Buffalo Music Hall of Fame and more.
Smith helped celebrate Blue Note’s 75th anniversary in 2014 by appearing with Donaldson at the historic concert Blue Note at 75 at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Some of Smith’s early tracks for Blue Note are collected on the playlist Intro to Dr. Lonnie Smith including standout cuts like “Spinning Wheel,” which was famously sampled by A Tribe Called Quest for their songs “Can I Kick It?” and “Buggin’ Out.”
Play It Back'
Afrodesia
For Heaven's Sake
Straight No Chaser
Talk About This
My Favorite Things
African Suite
Dr. Lonnie Smith: Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards (6, 7)
Robert Glasper: piano (1)
Joe Lovano: G mezzo soprano saxophone (2) tenor saxophone (3)
