Black Radio III

Robert Glasper

explicit

Released on 25-02-2022 by Loma Vista Recordings
Main artists: Robert Glasper
Genre: Jazz

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Robert Glasper's mission of using modern jazz as a foundation and launchpoint for exploring multiple facets of contemporary Black music returns with the third installment of Black Radio, nearly a decade after the second. Notably removed from the equation though, is the "Experiment" of the first two iterations. With Glasper as the individual anchor here, Black Radio III shifts both textually and tonally away from the idea of his jazz band backing some hip-hop and R&B musicians and more into a realm of Glasper's piano-playing and compositional hand guiding a melange of all-stars through a range of exciting material.

Black Radio III works both as a flowing, cohesive statement—the emotional and narrative flow is well-sequenced—and (like a good radio station) as a sampler of excellence. Eliding over any and all genre differences, Glasper once again treats all modern Black music as points on a spectrum, rather than cloistered corners of exclusion, resulting in an album that feels electrically modern, definitively rooted in soul, but also infinitely mutable. He skillfully deploys the best performers where they're most effective, whether it's India.Arie or Big K.R.I.T. or Q-Tip or Esperanza Spalding (singing in French), mixing and matching with gleeful—but respectful—abandon.

That's not to say the songs aren't well-crafted or considered. A surprising cover of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" could have been a straight-ahead read, but instead is rendered dramatic and low-key, with Lalah Hathaway's warm, lush vocals dominating the first part and a dense, tense rap by Common closing it out; Glasper's piano nearly disappears, but his presence never does. Likewise, the soulful, staccato groove on "Better Than I Imagined" finds a didn't-know-we-needed-it dream team of H.E.R. and Meshell Ndegeocello duetting in a display of strengths upon strengths that, were he alive, Prince would have most certainly found his way into the middle of. However, it's with the album's closing track—"Bright Lights"—that the success of this, er, experiment really comes into sharp focus. Ty Dolla $ign's hook on "Bright Lights" is jaw-droppingly gorgeous (maybe even more beautiful than Musiq Soulchild's earlier turn on "Everybody Love," which is saying something), ending the album out on a slightly wistful, deeply musical, and unapologetically hip-hop-focused note. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz

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Black Radio III

Robert Glasper

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