Robert Glasper - Canvas
ARTIST.....: Robert Glasper
TITLE......: Canvas
LABEL......: Blue Note Records
URL........: www.robertglasper.com
RIP DATE...: Oct-08-2005
STORE DATE.: Oct-04-2005
GENRE......: Jazz
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 95,1 MB
Track Listing:
01 - Rise And Shine 07:38
02 - Canvas 09:54
03 - Portrait Of An Angel 05:26
04 - Enoch's Meditation 08:10
05 - Centelude 01:06
06 - Jelly's Da Beener 07:45
07 - Chant 08:17
08 - Riot 06:22
09 - North Portland 05:53
10 - I Remember 05:56
─────
66:27 min
Release Notes:
From traditional to swing to bebop to avant-garde to fusion to
M-Base, each successive generation of jazz musicians have
remade/remodeled the music into a construct that reflects the
space and time they live in, and represents the why, what and who
that they are. Now itÆs time for a whole new generation to rise
and shine.
We're talking about the post-Vietnam babies
birthed-nurtured-matured by a quarter century's-worth of hip-hop.
Run-DMC was their old skool, Eric B. & Rakim; bebop, Public Enemy
the avant-garde and A Tribe Called Quest was stone cold fusion.
Many grew up to be the DJs, MCs and producers who are currently
remaking/remodeling hip-hop's future. An elite few of the hip hop
massive have taken a more radical path: that of the jazz musician.
Jason Moran, Russell Gunn and Stefon Harris are the leaders of
this new hip hop-rooted jazz school. To them, a hip-hop freestyle
cipher isnÆt any different from a jam session at Minton's. It's
all about the Art Ensemble of Chicago's big picture jazz credo,
"Great Black Music Ancient to the Future." On the strength of his
Blue Note debut Canvas, 26-year-old pianist/composer Robert
Glasper ascends to this vanguard.
On first listen, Canvas sounds decidedly mainstream. The second
time around, though, the true hip-hop nature of the music reveals
itself, not as much aurally as sensually. The bass is warmer,
phatter, more sanguine, the drums throb, and the piano dances
freestyling swing moods. "I mean, obviously it's jazz, but I try
to bring it all. I have to go into it because I feel it," says
Glasper. "I'm not trying to play hip-hop purposely, but it's
natural. I express myself through my music. You can hear who I am
through my music."
When summarizing Canvas two words come to mind: immediacy and
serendipity. On the former descriptive, Glasper explains, "A week
before the recording, we did the Regatta Bar in Boston, then we
did a weekend at Small's in New York two days before. So we got
the music in us; we just walked in the studio and hit. Everything
was one or two takes."
And serendipity? "I don't like overly arranged themes," says the
pianist, "because there's no room to actually play. I get sick of
my own music if I know how it's going to end, how I'm going to
play it. So when I give music to the band, I donÆt dictate it so
much, so I can be surprised too. Every time we play one of my
tunes, I want to walk away from that and go 'Whew!Æ"
Canvas puts forth Glasper as a new voice to be reckoned with
threefold: as a pianist, as a composer, and as one third of a trio
that Ben Ratliff of The New York Times has said "deserves
comparison with the best of the newer piano trios, those led by
Jason Moran, Bill Charlap and Brad Mehldau." Ratliff went on: "his
group has its own crisp, skittering cooperation, with hip hop in
its bounce."
As a pianist, Glasper owns a melodic sense that can mesmerize you
and a technique that can scare you, but thankfully he also
possesses the innate sense to know exactly which is needed at a
given moment. HeÆs absorbed all the usual influences (Tyner,
Hancock, Corea, Jarrett) and yet he exhibits a sound thatÆs
undeniably Glasper, his delicate touch and harmonic sense as
recognizable as any of the aforementioned masters.
As a composer, a facet of GlasperÆs musicianship that thereÆs no
getting around on Canvas with nine of the ten compositions his own
(the sole exception being Herbie HancockÆs "Riot" performed as a
tempo-and-feel-shifting quartet outing with tenor saxophonist Mark
Turner), he demonstrates a flair for the deceptively simplistic.
Lovely melodies and chord structures that wind and repeat, flowing
so seamlessly from one phrase to the next that itÆs easy to lose
track of where they begin and end ("Portrait of an Angel" and
"Chant," the latter of which features the vocal stylings of
Bilal). Odd and mixed meters that sound so natural that the casual
listener would never suspect that the band is swinginÆ in seven
("JellyÆs Da Beener") or that theyÆve moved from 5/4 to 5/8 and
back again ("Canvas," which also features another of TurnerÆs
remarkable solo turns).
On the gorgeous album-closer, "I Remember," a dedication to his
mother, Glasper actually incorporates a recording of her singing
that melts into the piano intro, and the tune ends with BilalÆs
vocals soaring over a wistful Glasper improvisation.
* * *
Robert Glasper was raised in Houston, Texas. His mother was his
first and strongest musical influence. Mrs. Glasper not only
played piano and sang gospel music in the family's church, she led
a band that worked the city's jazz and blues club circuit as well.
By the age of twelve, young Robert was playing piano in that
church. "Gospel music is built on emotion and spirituality; you go
to church and leave crying," he smiles. "It definitely just gave
me that sensitivity and knowing how to reach people and knowing
how to be in tune with your feelings and the emotion of the music.
My thing is, it helps me relate to the audience 'cause they're
gonna give you what you give them. When you bring the crowd into
your world, you can do anything you want."
By the time he reached adolescence, Robert knew his destiny was to
be a jazz musician. He was accepted to the Houston's famed High
School for the Performing Arts ("Jason Moran went there before
me."). Post-graduation, Glasper enrolled at New School University
in Manhattan. Soon after arrival, he hooked up with future
bandmember Reid and vocalist Bilal, an old schoolmate. As an
undergrad, Glasper gigged with Christian McBride, Russell Malone
and Kenny Garrett. Professional life after the New School was even
sweeter: stints with Nicholas Payton, Roy Hargrove, Terence
Blanchard, Carmen Lundy, and Carly Simon.
The Bilal connection brought the pianist back to hip-hop.
Glasper's contributions to Bilal's debut and subsequent tour
brought him to the attention of Q-Tip (A Tribe Called Quest). "Tip
would come hang out at my shows, and one day he called me and
said, æI'm doing this tour and I need you to play keys. Can you do
it?Æ" He's also since played with Mos Def, and is featured
prominently on Bilal's forthcoming sophomore release.
In 2003, Glasper's first album Mood was released on indie label
Fresh Sound New Talent, and two years later, Blue Note came
calling. At Blue Note, Glasper joins a jazz piano legacy that
stretches back to 1939, beginning with Albert Ammons and Meade Lux
Lewis, and continuing through Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Herbie
Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Andrew Hill, Cecil Taylor,
Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Jacky Terrasson, Jason Moran and Bill Charlap.
Undaunted, Glasper reflects, "IÆm just happy to be a part of the
Blue Note family and its rich history."