Monday night saw the Robert Glasper Experiment and their special guests Bilal and Lalah Hathaway sell out their show at London’s Barbican.
Jazz pianist Robert glasper recently released ‘Black Radio’, his most acclaimed album yet. Glasper has unofficially been appointed a saviour for black music by many. The fact it debut’d at number 1 in the Jazz charts and number 4 in the Hip-Hop/R&B charts would explain the mixture of fans he attracts. Glasper straddles the gap between these worlds without compromising to do so.
“Why do rock stars always throw over the things they need”, said Glasper after his band had warmed up, he had the crowd in stitches all night.
The Band featured Glasper on the piano and Fender Rhodes, Casey Benjamin on Vocoder and Saxophone and Mark Colenburg on drums (standing in for Chris Dave).
They took the crowd on a journey through new material and an Eclectic range of covers from the album including David Bowie’s ‘Letter to Hermoine’ and Mongo Santamaria’s Afro-Cuban classic ‘Afro Blue’.
Glasper’s incredible solos were met by Casey Benjamin’s tangents on the alto-sax. Bilal’s unique vocals and octave range sat beautifully with Glasper’s band a partnership that continues to grow from Glasper’s last album ‘Double Booked’. Lalah Hathaway also surprised the audience with her appearance singing her version of Sade’s ‘Cherish the Day’. At one point Glasper paid homage to legendary Hip-Hop producer Jay Dilla, it was beautiful to see a 60+ couple in front of me nodding their head along with no idea who this man was.
The Concert drew to a climatic ending with Casey Benjamin’s vocoder creating an almost unrecognisably spaced out version of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, this was met with a standing ovation as the band left the stage, after much screaming and shouting they returned to play Bilal’s ‘All Matter’. What was billed as a 90minute concert had soon turned into a 3hour set.
Well…and that’s not quite yet the end of our Robert Glasper Experiment London review – what to do when such a great ‘Experiment’ spontaneuously decides to play a second nightinthe city?
After announcing last night at the Barbican and on twitter to play this time in East and also propably at one of the most different venues compared to the Barbican Music Hall, we found ourselves at Village Underground’s ‘turn-of-the-century warehouse’. It’s needless to say we were amazed once more, the band’s ability to switch things up and feed off the audience meant we got to see a completely different show.
In Black Radio’s Liner notes his partner Angelika says ‘The collective dumbing down of our music is the greatest tragedy we can impose on generations to follow, while the over abundance of mediocrity surrounds our present, the solution is not to keep reaching behind for authenticity. Retrospection should influence, but cannot be the sole definer of legitimacy. Modernism is now! We stand on the shoulders of our predecessors but fly with our own wings.’
Words by Jack Gardiner, Inga Langkay Photography by Ash Herr (second and third image)
