{"id":5600,"date":"2012-03-12T15:30:36","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T22:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/?p=5600"},"modified":"2022-06-28T19:30:58","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T02:30:58","slug":"making-jazz-cool-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/12\/making-jazz-cool-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Jazz Cool Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Interview with Robert Glasper<\/h2>\n

by: Casey Pukl<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I think we’ve found our generation’s Miles Davis. Is that a bold statement? You bet. But jazz pianist Robert Glasper has a clear mission\u2014 to update the face of jazz and remind listeners what it was all about to begin with. Jazz is about innovation; it’s about being fresh, and according to Glasper, we should all, “make it cool again”\u2014 just like Miles did.<\/p>\n

Bringing jazz up to speed is Glasper’s mission. His latest release, Black Radio<\/em>, is a celebration of his hip-hop and soul inspired roots that culminates in a glorious record of collaborations. The record is one of the most buzzed about of 2012, and to date it has reached the #3 slot on iTunes in nine countries \u00a0and debuted at #15 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. In a genre where Glasper is repeatedly finding himself in competition with dead musicians, that’s a pretty solid start. Read on to find out more about Glasper’s vision and just why it was so important to make this record at this point in his career.<\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> How did you get your start in music? I know you went to HSPVA, which has a pretty incredible track record for producing some incredible artists. Where did you begin?<\/em><\/p>\n

RG:<\/strong> Oh boy, back to the beginning, huh? Argh. Let\u2019s see. My mother was a musician and pianist and musician, so music was always in the house. When I was about 12 years old, I really gravitated toward the piano, and then I auditioned for that high school and got in. That\u2019s kind of where I honed my skills if you will. After that, I got my scholarship to New York for college. Things just started taking off from there.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> I\u2019d love to get into a comment you made in an interview a few years back, I think it was around 2005. You started talking about all of the hip-hop influences you had, and at the time, that wasn\u2019t quite as present in your music. Was this album, \u201cBlack Radio\u201d kind of your plan all along?<\/em><\/p>\n

RG:<\/strong> Yeah, exactly. I\u2019m influenced by a lot of things, but when I first came out on Blue Note, I was doing my piano trio introduction as a jazz artist part of things. I tapped into the Robert Glasper jazz side first, and I didn\u2019t really use the hip-hop and soul side. I wanted to do this record when it made sense. I wanted to make sure that people took me seriously as a jazz pianist first. That\u2019s important to me. I know my craft, and that was really important. You know to know the craft first before you go out on your own and have fun with it. I think people take you seriously when you do that\u2014 kind of like Herbie in a way. Of course I don\u2019t have his longevity yet, but Herbie can do whatever he wants now because he\u2019s already proven himself; he\u2019s mastered his instrument. I just wanted people to know that I was at that level on my instrument before I got into the hip-hop\/soul stuff. I definitely paced it out in a way that made more sense like that. That\u2019s also why I did \u201cDouble Booked\u201d. That one gave you half and half before I went full-blown.<\/em><\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> Totally. I feel like you\u2019ve been hinting at this for a long time and dropping a lot of clues, but \u201cBlack Radio\u201d really brings it all together.<\/em><\/p>\n

RG:<\/strong> Exactly.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> Do you still practice often?<\/em><\/p>\n

RG:<\/strong> Not often. I wish (laughs). I don\u2019t find much time to practice these days, but I try when I can. I work so much that I just try to get into the wood shed when I can.<\/em><\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> This album is really exciting to me personally because it\u2019s so spacious. You\u2019ve always been good about leaving space, but this album feels so wide open. Did the use of vocalists have a large impact on that for you?<\/em><\/p>\n

RG:<\/strong> Yeah, I love vocalists. I\u2019m kind of a\u2026 what\u2019s the word\u2026 I don\u2019t have any patience for bad vocalists if that makes sense (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> That actually makes perfect sense (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n

RG:<\/strong> I was never the guy who could play behind vocalists at jam sessions and stuff. If you obviously had no clue what you were doing, I\u2019d just get out from behind the piano (laughs). So I really do love a great vocalist. My mother was an incredible vocalist, so I guess I was really spoiled. But I really wanted to touch the mainstream people who don\u2019t touch jazz. I wanted this to be a record that was jazzy enough for the jazz cats, but also not jazz enough for the people who don\u2019t listen to it at all. Jazz can run people off. Once you start soloing and doing a lot of runs and stuff that people don\u2019t understand, it can run people away. Fortunately, I love to not solo. Me and my band, we love to just stay on the groove and leave things open\u2014 we love space. I love not saying too much. To me, space is so beautiful. I didn\u2019t mind not playing a lot. I purposely said when doing this record that I wasn\u2019t going to solo a lot. I wanted to keep it in a format that could reach the mainstream. You might not even realize that a certain song belongs to a jazz record.<\/em><\/p>\n

Some people might not acknowledge that it even is a jazz record, and that\u2019s fine too. I don\u2019t care what you call it. It\u2019s music, and if you like it, you like it, and if you don\u2019t, don\u2019t! I couldn\u2019t care less about what you call it. I think we did a good job of balancing everything in there.\u00a0 Even though there aren’t a lot of solos, you can still hear the interaction with the band in a very patient way. That was definitely the master plan on this record.<\/em><\/p>\n

CP:<\/strong> Plan accomplished! I also thought it was awesome that on the record, \u201cAfro Blue\u201d, which is an old jazz standard, sounded more like a laid back modern hip-hop tune while \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d sounded like an older jazz standard. It was such an awesome turn to take. <\/em>[Videos included below for your own analysis\/observation\/enjoyment]<\/p>\n


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