Rehearsing The Blues

"A Man Of Many Dimensions": Interview With Robert Glasper

Note: I conducted this interview for Nextbop, and you should check it out there if you have the time. I wrote a nice little introduction and everything, so it's totally worth it, Click here. Click it. Here.

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Nextbop: Thank you very much for doing this. I know you must have a busy schedule.

Robert Glasper: No problem.

NB: Well, let's just get into it. First question is, what was your mission making Black Radio? What did you want the music community to know when they saw this record in the music store and listened to it for the first time?

RG: That I'm a man of many dimensions, and many sides. Now I'm just exploring my more hip-hop/soul side, but still jazz-infused. So really this is like a good collaboration album of hip-hop, soul, jazz... You know. I think I'm the first one to actually do it right.

Everybody Loves Raymond (But They Shouldn't) (Op-Ed)

Note: This piece, more of an op-ed than anything else, was originally written for Nextbop.com, but the folks there decided not to publish it. I'm proud to say I write for Nextbop, and am grateful to Sebastien Helary and Anthony Dean-Harris for giving me the opportunity. But certain aspects of Nextbop's editorial policy, such as not criticizing but also not seemingly saying no to the average or mediocre can get on my nerves. I'm a believer in assessing things based on their worth, not their aspirations (or my own), and that's how I wrote this piece.

Anthony asked me to review this album, and it seemed to me to exemplify that point, and a larger point about this newest generation of jazz musicians. John Raymond, if you're reading this, keep on truckin'. Don't give up, man. The rest of you, read on.

Roundup #8: What I Missed In 2011

Ari Hoenig, Lines Of Oppression

Ari Hoenig's latest record, a quartet effort with rising stars Tigran Hamasyan and Gilad Hekselman prominently featured, is exactly what one expects from the agile and complexity-minded drummer. That isn't to say it's boring or dull; it just isn't all that surprising, either. Hekselman sounds a little less like Kurt Rosenwinkel, but not much, and the inventive Hamasyan doesn't have many opportunities to expand into the pianistic regions we all know he should be able to reach. An effect that has seemed awkward in the past, Hoenig's Blakey-like manipulation of the pitch of his drums to play melodies, has here been turned into what is unquestionably Lines Of Oppression's set piece: a hard-swinging, soulful rendition of the Benny Golson tune "Moanin'," bracketed by Hoenig's expressive drum kit.  

But elsewhere, the gimmicks seem to be just that, gimmicks, without the sense of deep musicality that elevates "Moanin'". "How High The Moon" is arranged very creatively indeed, but the tune is such a chestnut that the re-arrangement seems to be more out of obligation than a real musical necessity, and when the melody ends up obscured behind tempo and meter changes, it brings up the question of why they bothered with the tune at all (for contrast, check out Aaron Goldberg and Guillermo Klein's Bienestan, where standards were arranged similarly, but with more respect for the sound of the material). Worth buying for "Moanin'" alone, but with that said, don't come crying to me when the rest of the disc disappoints.