The pianist Robert Glasper pitches his tent at the junction of coolheaded logic and digressive caprice. Not long into his sold-out first set at the Village Vanguard on Wednesday night, he tossed off a staccato solo interlude, notes clacking like marbles out of a bag onto the floor. A melodic shape emerged, and bass and drums hit a single, sudden downbeat — thump! — as Mr. Glasper kept extemporizing with chromatic flair.
His trio was playing an original tune, “In Case You Forgot,” whose setup involves a deftly spiky refrain and a passel of quotations from other songs. The first of these allusions were jazz standards: “Body and Soul,” Freddie Hubbard’s “Up Jumped Spring.” Then came the more left-field allusions, to the Bonnie Raitt tear-jerker “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time.” Laughter rippled through the room, but Mr. Glasper was imperturbable, never breaking or tipping his hand.
This felt like an emblematic exchange for Mr. Glasper, who has carved out his niche as a serious jazz musician in breezy dialogue with several strains of pop, and an entertainer whose crowd-pleasing gestures are by no means incompatible with his art. A few weeks ago he won his second Grammy Award in the R&B category, for a track from “Black Radio 2” (Blue Note), the second album by the Robert Glasper Experiment, packed with guest vocalists from contemporary soul and hip-hop.
His seventh album, “Covered,” due out on June 16, will feature the same hyperalert acoustic trio appearing this week, with Vicente Archer on bass and Damion Reid on drums. In one sense the album is a return to clearer jazz parameters for Mr. Glasper, who made his Village Vanguard debut with Mr. Reid and Mr. Archer a decade ago, and enlisted them on his first two Blue Note albums.
But as the title suggests, “Covered” is something other than a standard piano trio date; its track list includes songs by artists like John Legend and Kendrick Lamar. Some of these reinventions found their way into this set, including a “Stella by Starlight” pinned to a whispery hip-hop groove, and “The Worst,” a ballad of tortured yearning by Jhené Aiko, finessed in a slow-simmering mode.
Mr. Glasper’s slithery take on Prince’s “Sign o’ the Times,” which doesn’t appear on the album, segued into an original tone poem called “Got Over,” which does. “I’m one of the ones of color/Who got over,” rasped Harry Belafonte in a recorded overlay to the song, offering a testimonial that doubles as a societal indictment.
And “I Don’t Even Care,” which as a bonus track on “Black Radio 2” included Macy Gray and Jean Grae, resurfaced here as it does on “Covered,” with a skittering beat and a chiming, harmonically restless piano solo. Nearing the end, Mr. Glasper shifted seamlessly into “You Got Me,” the neo-soul anthem by the Roots, and “Blue in Green,” by Miles Davis and Bill Evans. It was all of a piece, and it all made slanted sense.
- http://bit.ly/1GyMBCU
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu