Robert Glasper returns with more talk, less action on new album

If one’s ever heard of Robert Glasper, they’ve probably heard something about him singlehandedly saving jazz music from extinction, waking black musicians out of their stupor, or any number of other equally hyperbolic nuggets of rhetoric. While it may not achieve all of these lofty goals, there is no denying that with Black Radio 2, the Houston-born prodigy has succeeded. Yet again, he assembles unique voices from disparate corners of pop, jazz, blues, R&B and hip-hop into a hypnotizing sonic mosaic.

Especially after 2012’s Black Radio won a Grammy for Best R&B Album, it seems that a great deal of expectations for the future of jazz were placed on Glasper’s shoulders. Perhaps this is also due to the lack of other well-known contemporary artists in the genre. Juxtaposed with jazz musicians’ typical obsession with the past, the fresh take of Black Radio 2 exists essentially in a musical vacuum. One has to look no further than this summer’s Newport Jazz Festival, which was headlined by the 80-year-old Wayne Shorter, to see evidence of this.

The only problem with trying to see this record as a new direction for jazz music is that it is not a jazz record. Glasper himself said in an interview with The New York Observer, “This one is pretty much an R&B solo record with sprinkles of jazz here and there.” This is an oversimplified, but accurate description of Black Radio 2. Fans of previous Glasper albums such as Double Booked and Canvas hoping for a return to bebop scales and extended instrumentals should look elsewhere. Fans of groovy, love-making R&B, however, will not be disappointed. Tracks such as “You’re My Everything,” a soulful duet with vocals from Bilal and Jazmine Sullivan, harken back to ’90s R&B such as R. Kelly and D’Angelo.

The lack of jazz influence isn’t the only noticeable change on the sequel. On the first Black Radio, saxophonist Casey Benjamin’s (over)use of vocoder on almost every track was a very polarizing component. The vocoder is much less present on the new album, and when it is there, it feels much more tasteful. In keeping with this mentality of less is more, this record features only a single cover song, compared to four or five on the first album. The Experiment takes on Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” as the closer to the album. It was originally intended to be used only as a sound check. Because of this, it features nearly every musician appearing on the album and feels like an appropriate closer.

While these changes benefitted the overall aesthetic, this is not the case for every change that was made. One of the best parts of Black Radio is missing this time around, and that is the drumming of Chris “Daddy” Dave, who was unavailable due to touring with his own group. One of the most unique talents in drumming today, Dave blends his gospel chops with complicated jazz time changes and uses his mastery of time to come in just ahead of or behind the beat. There are very few drummers who play even remotely similarly to him. Thankfully, Mark Colenburg, Dave’s stand-in for the album, is one of those drummers. Although Colenburg also has impressive chops and technical abilities, they are barely utilized. The music calls mostly for a simple, steady backbeat. The exception to this rule is the tantalizing “Let It Ride.” This song pairs up the smooth, airy vocals of Norah Jones with a relentless, driving drum and bass beat. The result is the most cohesive, interesting track of the entire recording.

With their Grammy nod in 2012, Robert Glasper Experiment acts such as Bon Iver in the club of Grammy winners who are still somehow outsiders. Rather than following in Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon’s footsteps and beguiling his success, however, Robert Glasper is glad that he has been given a platform from which he can spread his message of “real music,” replacing what is heard on the radio. This is all well and good, but tracks such as “I Stand Alone” seem to beat the listener over the head with this message. The title says it all: Everyone is a cookie-cutter except for me. I stand alone. It even concludes with a voice-over by author Michael Eric Dyson lamenting musicians who are “satisfied with mimicking the popular, rather than mining the fertile veins of creativity.” This may be true, but stating it outright repeatedly feels slightly contrived. Too many times, the  listener is being told as opposed to being shown.

It’s not all serious, though. There are moments when the activism subsides and gives way to humor, such as Wayne Brady’s hilarious voicemail in which he freestyles and impersonates Erykah Badu. This was a tasteful injection of fun, but there are other attempts at humor that fall flat. One such moment occurs in the opening track, “Baby Tonight (Black Radio 2 Theme Song/Mic Check 2).” Like the opener of the first record, we are introduced to the wide variety of featured artists through their speaking, scatting, singing and rapping over a sparse piano vamp. Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump already sticks out like a sore thumb on the lineup of features, and only further exacerbates this incongruity by singing in a mocking voice, “This is Patrick Stump and I never get to do shit like this.” The only other appearance made by Stump occurs on the track “I Stand Alone,” an anti-pop ode to individuality. The irony of featuring Stump, a former tween-pop/punk icon who has recently forayed into plain old pop, makes it hard to take the message seriously.

That being said, the highest level of virtuosic skill and instrumental mastery can be expected from anything to which Glasper attaches his name. On that front, this recording doesn’t disappoint. Whether or not the group’s statements about the stagnation of popular music are valid, there is no questioning their playing abilities. And, really, that is what it’s all about. He could have all the guest features in the world, but without a pre-existing concept and sound, none of them would be effective. Glasper came into the recording process with such a framework, and as a result, the album succeeds. Although it doesn’t measure up to the original, Black Radio 2 is a solid record that deserves the praise and hype surrounding it.

 

Rating: 3.5/5