Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio

Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio

RELEASED

February 28, 2012

Blue Note Records

P.S.: This date states for the Blue Note release. The album was first released in Japan, in February 22, 2012.

PERSONNEL

Casey Benjamin - Alto Saxophone (Tracks 3, 6 & 9-10), Vocoder (Tracks 1, 3-4, 8 & 12), Flute (Tracks 2 & 11)

Chris Dave - Drums

Derrick Hodge - Bass

Robert Glasper - Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes] (Track 1-9 & 12), Piano (All Tracks)

Amber Strother - Backing Vocals (Track 6), Lead Vocals (Track 6)

Anita Bias - Vocals (Track 6)

Bilal - Vocals (Tracks 4 & 11)

Chrisette Michele - Vocals (Track 7)

Erykah Badu - Vocals (Track 2)

Jahi Sundance - Turntables (Tracks 1, 8, 10 & 12)

Lalah Hathaway (Tracks 3 & 12)

Ledisi - Vocals (Track 5)

Lupe Fiasco - Vocals (Track 4)

Meshell Ndegeocello - Vocals (Track 8)

Musiq Soulchild - Finger Snaps (Track 7), Vocals (Track 7)

Paris Strother - Keyboards (Track 6)

Shafiq Husayn - Vocals (Track 1)

Stokley Williams - Percussion (Tracks 9 & 12), Vocals (Track 9)

Yasiin Bey - Vocals (Track 10)

Angelika Beener - Liner Notes
Bryan-Michael Cox - Producer (Track 7)
Casey Benjamin - Arranger (Track 8)
Cem Kurosman - Publisher
Chris Athens - Mastering
Cognito - Photographer
Eli Wolf - Artists & Repertoire, Executive Producer
Gordon H. Jee - Art Director
Jewell Green - Photographer
Keith Lewis - Engineer
Max Ross - Engineer
Michael Schreiber - Photographer
Nicole Hegeman - Executive Producer, Manager, Production Coordinator
Qmillion - Mixing
Robert Glasper - Arranger (Tracks 2 & 12), Producer
Shanieka D. Brooks - Marketing
Steve Cook - Artists & Repertoire
Todd Bergman - Assistant
Vincent Bennett - Manager

TRACK LISTING

01 Lift Off [Feat. Shafiq Husayn] / Mic Check (Robert Glasper / Shafiq Husayn)

02 Afro Blue [Feat. Erykah Badu] (Mongo Santamaría)

03 Cherish The Day [Feat. Lalah Hathaway] (Andrew Hale / Sade / Stuart Matthewman)

04 Always Shine [Feat. Bilal & Lupe Fiasco] (Lupe Fiasco / Robert Glasper)

05 Gonna Be Alright (F.T.B.) [Feat. Ledisi] (Ledisi / Robert Glasper)

06 Move Love [Feat. KING] (Amber Strother / Anita Bias / Robert Glasper)

07 Ah Yeah [Feat. Chrisette Michele & Musiq Soulchild] (Chrisette Michele / Derrick Hodge / Musiq / Robert Glasper)

08 The Consequences Of Jealousy [Feat. Meshell Ndegeocello] (Meshell Ndegeocello / Robert Glasper)

09 Why Do We Try [Feat. Stokley Williams] (Jeff Allen / Lawrence Waddell / O'Dell / Ricky Kinchen / Stokley Williams)

10 Black Radio [Feat. Yasiin Bey] (Chris Dave / Derrick Hodge / Robert Glasper / Yasiin Bey)

11 Letter To Hermione [Feat. Bilal] (David Bowie)

12 Smells Like Teen Spirit (Dave Grohl / Krist Novoselic / Kurt Cobain)

REVIEW

Depending on your age, Houston-born pianist/composer Robert Glasper is—like trumpeters Christian Scott and Ambrose Akinmusire, and bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding-either the herald of a new world a-comin' when jazz musicians will be heard on pop radio on a regular basis, or he's a throwback to the golden age of the seventies, when jazz stars, from Herbie Hancock to Donald Byrd, were played on African-American and pop stations.

Blessed with a fleet-fingered, countrified approach to the piano that blends gospel, Thelonious Monk and hip-hop producer J Dilla, Black Radio is a propulsive, poetic and profound recording that deftly and defiantly destroys the market-driven barriers that sadly make terrestrial radio the Apartheid-airwave experience it is today. Like the most successful jazz musicians who had pop hits back in the day, Glasper understands that it's not about extended, solos (those can be heard on his last three Blue Note releases); it's about creating an open, melodic and rhythmic quantum universe where, in Duke Ellington's beautiful phrase, "the feeling of jazz" effortlessly melds with R&B, rock, hip-hop, neo-soul and quiet storm formats.

Glasper also perceptively peeped that great records are all about the collab, and on Black Radio he's in superb company, with Erykah Badu, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway and Musiq Soulchild, lending their neo-soul vocals on blue-lights-in-the-basement ballads like "Ah Yeah," and Sade's "Cherish The Day." Glasper and company puts a turbo-charged, hip-hop spin on Mongo Santamaria's Latin jazz classic "Afro-Blue," and the leader revives his own "Gonna Be Alright (F.T.B.)," previously released on In My Element (Blue Note, 2007), but this time with lyrics rendered in lush-life fashion by Ledisi. Rapper Mos Def's Crooklyn cadences rock the title track, contrasted by the martial reinterpretation of David Bowie's guitar-centric "Letter to Hermione" and a twilight-toned reimagining of Nirvana's classic "Smells Like Teen Spirit," complete with Casey Benjamin's grooving and ghostly vocoder lead vocal, and Hathaway's ethereal fills.

Buoyed by the swing-at-the-speed-of-sound support of Benjamin, drummer, Chris Dave and bassist Derrick Hodge, the ingenious, swinging, syncopated science of the Robert Glasper Experiment will no doubt make the 21st century reintegration of jazz aesthetic into pop radio a reality.

Eugene Holley, Jr.

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=41557#.UOYOWeTBeZc

DOWNLOAD

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?v7fdazyac01ocx4