With the decline in sales of the CD, some jazz artists are leaning even more heavily on live performance, leaving longer gaps between each new recording. Not so Robert Glasper. The crossover success of Grammy award-winning Black Radio in early 2012 was followed by Black Radio Recovered: The Remix EP later the same year, and now Black Radio 2 just one year later. The new album follows in much the same vein as the original album – the core Experiment band of Glasper, Casey Benjamin (saxophone, vocoder), Derrick Hodge (bass) and Mark Colenburg (drums) is joined by an array of guest R’n’B and rap singers, including Jill Scott, Brandy, Lalah Hathaway, Norah Jones, Anthony Hamilton, Common and even Snoop Dog.
There are differences – some good, some not so good. The new CD relies more heavily on originals, with fewer cover versions. The sole cover this time around is a fine version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Jesus Children’ by Lalah Hathaway, although the iTunes edition also features a cover of the Bill Withers’ classic, ‘Lovely Day’. Where the compositions are strong – such as Jill Scott’s ‘Calls’ and Emeli Sandé’s ‘Somebody Else’, that’s all well and good. But a couple of the tunes fall a little flat, including Brandy’s ‘What Are We Doing’, lending the album a slightly uneven feel. As with Black Radio, the infusion of rap is also hit and miss; whilst Common successfully invokes the spirit of Gil Scott-Heron and Marvin Gaye over a fine piano motif on ‘I Stand Alone’, Lupe Fiasco contrives to rhyme “blood gently dripping” with Rudyard Kipling on ‘Persevere’.
Other highlights worth mentioning include Anthony Hamilton’s soaring, passionate singing on ‘Yet To Find’ and the drum ‘n’ bass influenced ‘Let It Ride’, with the versatile Norah Jones delivering a warm vocal.
Jazz purists may well complain that the tight R’n’B grooves leave little room for improvisation; at times the Experiment sound no more than a support band for the guest vocalists. Casey Benjamin’s saxophone barely gets a look in this time around, and even Robert Glasper’s piano and keyboard sounds less prominent. But these are minor gripes. It’s great to hear a more organic, less digital R’n’B, with Mark Colenburg locking down a tight groove on the drums. It’s also worth noting that the Experiment is an entirely different proposition on stage; the jazz influence is more noticeable than in the studio, and the band can stretch out. But most important, this is music with genuine ‘crossover’ appeal; this is not meant to be pure jazz – it’s Black Radio.
