Robert Glasper has found a way to negotiate his double life, and then some. The four-hour show at Le Poisson Rouge (8/30/09) appropriately began with a straight-ahead acoustic jazz set with his trio, himself thoughtfully massaging the ivories, with drummer Chris Dave and bassist Vincente Archer. Insert industry mingle break. And back on stage with his alternate band, The Experiment, where hip-hop/soul/nu-jazz/electro stayed engaged in an invigorating conversation, with added quirky inflections from Bilal's operatic-turned-falsetto wailings and Casey Benjamin's vocorder. Double Booked, though the tongue-in-cheek title of his new album, suggests perhaps a real case of being caught in between cultures, or in this case, music communities.
Glasper's album release performance sought to gracefully integrate the two, and brought in elements of the young hip (hop) crowd along with the jazz aficionados who frequent West Village jazz functions. The "make it plain" simplicity of his trio allows for the beautiful clarity of his piano playing to resonate. On the other hand, the accessorization of added instrumental elements in The Experiment allows unorthodoxy and the element of surprise to captivate live audiences (though it's more '70s fusion than anything resembling straight hip-hop). After all, pop culture demands more visuals and more sounds on a constant basis. None could complain about a lack of aesthetic stimulation with Benjamin's full head of red locks and full-body saxophone playing, while none of the other musicians were sitting in their chairs either. From a man who has gigged with Christian McBride and served as Mos Def's musical director, it only makes sense for Glasper to take after those like Roy Hargrove who have found a way to be comfortably situated somewhere in between, without compromising either experience. Glasper helps keep the Blue Note legacy alive as a more than appropriate pianist representative of the contemporary age. From the deliberate conservation to the full-blown explosion of the LPR performance, Glasper is back to be intentionally double-booked. - Boyuan Gao
Miss Gao is the current Urban Music Editor for Beyond Race Magazine (BRM), an internationally distributed quarterly publication focused on independent artists, as well as the Music Editor for Sounds Good Live, an online-based site of live music reviews. Ms. Gao currently resides in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. She spends most of her free time training in the martial arts, working as a youth educator, and crafting wearable art.