Robert Glasper: The Nu Jazz

Robert Glasper

I always tell my piano students to check out the masters: the historical greats such as Fats Waller, Bill Evans, Bud Powell, Theolonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, and so many others. However, I think it is also important to check out the players of today. Jazz is a living music, and if we ignore those who are playing jazz now, aren't we,in a sense, discrediting ourselves?

In a recent lesson, I had one of my students listen to some Robert Glasper. Who is Robert Glasper?
Glasper is a young pianist from Houston, Texas. He went to New York to study at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and he has had a meteoric rise to success in the jazz world. He was signed to Blue Note in 2005, after having worked as a sideman with people like trumpeter Nicholas Payton and rapper Q-Tip. Glasper is a piano virtuoso: he has a ferocious right hand, which can blaze solo lines of impressive complexity, but also deliver soulful melodic statements. Glasper represents a different point of departure in his influences: I hear more Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau, and also some modern Gospel influence. His rhythmic phrasing comes more from hip-hop than be-bop. (Although, I don't think hip-hop would have existed without be-bop, but that's another discussion.)

Glasper's most recent disc is called Double Booked , which refers to, in this case jokingly, the occurrence of a musician who is slated for two different concerts in two different locations in the same night. (Hey, it happens!)This premise is used here to feature two of Glasper's bands on one disc: The Robert Glasper Trio, and the Robert Glasper Experiment, respectively. The former is a perhaps more traditional jazz trio, and the latter is a more blatant vehicle for jazz hip-hop fusion. The Experiment features the great Casey Benjamin, who plays alto saxophone, but also does wonderful things with the vocoder (a vocoder is a device which essentially synthesizes the voice. It almost sounds like a singing robot. But trust me, it's hipper than that!)

Back to my lesson: my student and I had been talking about rhythm. I usually urge students to listen to  Wynton Kelly to learn how to swing. But jazz rhythm has changed a lot since the 1950's and 1960's. It has incorporated all of the trends in American popular music, including rock, soul, funk, and hip hop. Glasper does some beautiful behind-the-beat hip-hop phrasing on "Yes I'm Country(And That's OK)". I wanted my student to try to emulate Glasper's approach in order to have a wider perspective, and to make his rhythmic approach more organic.

I highly recommend you check out Robert Glasper if you want to hear a soulful, modern spin on jazz piano concepts.

http://robertglasper.com/