Robert Glasper
Encyclopedia
Robert Glasper in Houston, Texas
is an American
jazz
pianist
and record producer
.
, Catholic
and Seventh-day Adventist. Glasper has said that he first developed his sound in church, where he learned his own way to hear harmony
, and was inspired to mix church and gospel harmonies with jazz harmonies.
Glasper attended Elkins High School in Houston, TX and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
and went on to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. At the New School, Glasper met neo-soul singer Bilal Oliver. They began performing and recording together, which led to associations with a variety of hip-hop and R&B artists parallel to Glasper’s emerging jazz career. He has worked with Bilal and Mos Def
as musical director, Q-Tip (The Renaissance
), Kanye West
(Late Registration
), Meshell Ndegeocello (The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams
), J Dilla
, Erykah Badu
, Jay-Z
, Talib Kweli
, Common, Slum Village and Maxwell
, with whom he toured extensively on 2009’s BLACKsummers'night
tour.
Glasper’s first album, Mood, was released by Fresh Sound New Talent in 2004, after the pianist’s stints playing in bands with guitarists Russell Malone
and Mark Whitfield
, bassist Christian McBride
, and trumpeters Terence Blanchard
(Bounce) and Roy Hargrove
. The album features six original compositions by Glasper alongside versions of “Blue Skies,” “Alone Together,” and Herbie Hancock
’s “Maiden Voyage
,” featuring guest vocalist Bilal. Glasper has said that his arrangement of the Hancock tune was inspired by the Radiohead
song “Everything in Its Right Place.”
Blue Note Records
released Canvas
, Glasper’s major-label debut, in 2005. The album features nine original songs and a version of Hancock’s “Riot.” Glasper plays the Fender Rhodes on three tracks, and Bilal sings on two. In My Element
, released in 2006, includes songs written in honor of Glasper’s mother (“Tribute”) and hip-hop producer J Dilla (“J Dillalude”). The pianist also revisits Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage,” which segues into a version of “Everything in Its Right Place,” and quotes Duke Ellington
’s “Fleurette Africaine.”
Glasper's latest release is the 2009 album Double-Booked
. It is divided between songs performed by Glasper in an acoustic piano trio and funk-influenced tracks played on electric instruments, such as the Fender Rhodes electric piano and the vocoder
(used on a version of Herbie Hancock’s “Butterfly”). The album features voice mail recordings from Blanchard and Roots
drummer Questlove, and guest vocals and spoken word appearances by Bilal and Mos Def. Bilal received a 2010 Grammy Award nomination for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for the track “All Matter.”
Glasper has performed at jazz festivals throughout the world, and his trio performed at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival
as part of Blue Note's "Somethin' Else" jazz tent. In addition to his working trio (Chris Dave, drums; Vicente Archer, bass), he also leads the RCDC Experiment (Derrick Hodge
, Chris Dave, and Casey Benjamin
), in which he explores fusions of jazz and hip hop. Robert Glasper is currently represented by Addeo Music International (AMI)
.
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
.
Career
Glasper’s earliest musical influence was his mother, Kim Yvette Glasper, who sang jazz and blues professionally. She would bring him with her to club dates rather than leave her son with babysitters. She also performed in church where the young Glasper began playing piano, and performed during services at three separate churches: BaptistBaptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
, Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and Seventh-day Adventist. Glasper has said that he first developed his sound in church, where he learned his own way to hear harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
, and was inspired to mix church and gospel harmonies with jazz harmonies.
Glasper attended Elkins High School in Houston, TX and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is a secondary school located at 4001 Stanford Street in the Montrose district of Houston, Texas. The school is a part of the Houston Independent School District....
and went on to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. At the New School, Glasper met neo-soul singer Bilal Oliver. They began performing and recording together, which led to associations with a variety of hip-hop and R&B artists parallel to Glasper’s emerging jazz career. He has worked with Bilal and Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
as musical director, Q-Tip (The Renaissance
The Renaissance (Q-Tip album)
The Renaissance is the second studio album by American hip hop artist Q-Tip, released November 3, 2008, on Universal Motown Records. The follow-up to his solo debut album, Amplified , it was recorded after Q-Tip's Kamaal/The Abstract was initially shelved in 2002 by his former label Arista Records...
), Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
(Late Registration
Late Registration
Late Registration is the second studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released August 30, 2005, on Roc-A-Fella Records. Recording sessions for the album took place over the course of a year at various recording studios located in New York City and Hollywood...
), Meshell Ndegeocello (The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams
The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams
The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams is the seventh studio album by American musician Meshell Ndegeocello. The album was released in August 2007...
), J Dilla
J Dilla
James Dewitt Yancey , better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan...
, Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright , better known by her stage name Erykah Badu , is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical...
, Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
, Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene , better known as Talib Kweli, is an American hip-hop artist and poet from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" ; his in Swahili means "true"...
, Common, Slum Village and Maxwell
Maxwell
-People:* Maxwell , Grammy winning R&B/neo-soul singer* Maxwell Cabelino Andrade , a Brazilian footballer who plays for Spanish La Liga club FC Barcelona...
, with whom he toured extensively on 2009’s BLACKsummers'night
BLACKsummers'night
BLACKsummers'night is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Maxwell, released July 7, 2009 on Columbia Records. It is the follow-up to his third album Now...
tour.
Glasper’s first album, Mood, was released by Fresh Sound New Talent in 2004, after the pianist’s stints playing in bands with guitarists Russell Malone
Russell Malone
Russell Malone is an essentially self-taught swing and bebop jazz guitarist. He began working with Jimmy Smith in 1988, and went on to work with Harry Connick, Jr. and Diana Krall throughout the 1990s...
and Mark Whitfield
Mark Whitfield
Mark Whitfield is an American hard bop and soul-jazz guitarist born in Syosset, New York, probably better known for his recordings as bandleader for both the Verve and Warner Bros. Records record labels...
, bassist Christian McBride
Christian McBride
Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors...
, and trumpeters Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...
(Bounce) and Roy Hargrove
Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997, and in 2002...
. The album features six original compositions by Glasper alongside versions of “Blue Skies,” “Alone Together,” and Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
’s “Maiden Voyage
Maiden Voyage (composition)
"Maiden Voyage" is a jazz composition by Herbie Hancock from his 1965 album Maiden Voyage. It features Hancock's quartet – trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams – with additional saxophonist George Coleman...
,” featuring guest vocalist Bilal. Glasper has said that his arrangement of the Hancock tune was inspired by the Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
song “Everything in Its Right Place.”
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
released Canvas
Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...
, Glasper’s major-label debut, in 2005. The album features nine original songs and a version of Hancock’s “Riot.” Glasper plays the Fender Rhodes on three tracks, and Bilal sings on two. In My Element
In My Element
In My Element is an album by jazz pianist and composer Robert Glasper, released on the Blue Note label. The album is Glasper's second for Blue Note.-Track listing:All songs composed by Robert Glasper except as indicated.#"G&B" – 8:29...
, released in 2006, includes songs written in honor of Glasper’s mother (“Tribute”) and hip-hop producer J Dilla (“J Dillalude”). The pianist also revisits Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage,” which segues into a version of “Everything in Its Right Place,” and quotes Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
’s “Fleurette Africaine.”
Glasper's latest release is the 2009 album Double-Booked
Double-Booked
Double-Booked is an album by jazz pianist and composer Robert Glasper, released on the Blue Note label on August 25, 2009. The album is Glasper's third for Blue Note.-Track listing:All songs composed by Robert Glasper except as indicated....
. It is divided between songs performed by Glasper in an acoustic piano trio and funk-influenced tracks played on electric instruments, such as the Fender Rhodes electric piano and the vocoder
Vocoder
A vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...
(used on a version of Herbie Hancock’s “Butterfly”). The album features voice mail recordings from Blanchard and Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
drummer Questlove, and guest vocals and spoken word appearances by Bilal and Mos Def. Bilal received a 2010 Grammy Award nomination for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for the track “All Matter.”
Glasper has performed at jazz festivals throughout the world, and his trio performed at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival
Bonnaroo Music Festival
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It hosted its tenth annual event June 9–12, 2011...
as part of Blue Note's "Somethin' Else" jazz tent. In addition to his working trio (Chris Dave, drums; Vicente Archer, bass), he also leads the RCDC Experiment (Derrick Hodge
Derrick Hodge
Derrick Hodge is an American bassist, composer, and music producer. He is also the founder of Son of Knowledge Music and Son of Knowledge Entertainment.- Biography :...
, Chris Dave, and Casey Benjamin
Casey Benjamin
Casey Benjamin is a saxophonist, keyboardist, producer and songwriter from South Jamaica Queens, New York City. He attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and the The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in Manhattan...
), in which he explores fusions of jazz and hip hop. Robert Glasper is currently represented by Addeo Music International (AMI)
Addeo Music International (AMI)
Addeo Music International is an international jazz booking agency established in 2008 that works with a number of internationally acclaimed artists. AMI develops its artists through focused touring initiatives and management of international performances through a network of AMI-affiliated...
.
Musical Style
Glasper's music can be described as "experiments with space, rhythm and chord textures", creating a vast array of sound. He has said that he tries to make the music flow in a way more like a hip-hop beat, trying to always leave the music open for someone to rap over.Discography
- Mood (2003)
- CanvasCanvas (album)Canvas is an album by jazz pianist and composer Robert Glasper, released on the Blue Note label. The album is Glasper's first for a major label.-Track listing:All songs composed by Robert Glasper except "Riot," composed by Herbie Hancock....
(2005) - In My ElementIn My ElementIn My Element is an album by jazz pianist and composer Robert Glasper, released on the Blue Note label. The album is Glasper's second for Blue Note.-Track listing:All songs composed by Robert Glasper except as indicated.#"G&B" – 8:29...
(2007) - Double-BookedDouble-BookedDouble-Booked is an album by jazz pianist and composer Robert Glasper, released on the Blue Note label on August 25, 2009. The album is Glasper's third for Blue Note.-Track listing:All songs composed by Robert Glasper except as indicated....
(2009)