Black Radio

Robert Glasper | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 28, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B0067Q04AM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #1 in Music > Blues > Contemporary Blues
  • #1 in Music > Jazz > Soul-Jazz & Boogaloo
  • #2 in Music > Rock > Blues Rock

Editorial Reviews

Robert Glasper Experiment will release Black Radio (Blue Note Records/EMI), a future landmark album that boldly stakes out new musical territory and transcends any notion of genre, drawing from jazz, hip hop, R&B and rock, but refusing to be pinned down by any one tag. The fi rst full-length album from the GRAMMY-nominated keyboardist's electric Experiment band--saxist/vocoderist Casey Benjamin, bassist Derrick Hodge, and drummer Chris Dave--Black Radio also features many of Glasper's famous friends from the spectrum of urban music, seamlessly incorporating appearances from a jaw-dropping roll call of special guests including Erykah Badu, Bilal, Lupe Fiasco, Lalah Hathaway, Shafi q Husayn (Sa-Ra), KING, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Musiq Soulchild, Meshell Ndegeocello, Stokley Williams (Mint Condition), and yasiin bey (Mos Def).

Throughout, the Experiment wears its eclecticism on its sleeve, presenting new collaborative originals and surprising cover songs. They transform the Afro-Cuban standard "Afro Blue" with Badu, Sade's "Cherish The Day" with Hathaway, David Bowie's "Letter to Hermione" with Bilal, and Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with Benjamin's vocoder vocal

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Experimentation For Meditation", February 28, 2012

By 

Q. Pair "Shaman" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Radio (Audio CD)

I've always had an admiration of artists who attempt to cross the boundaries of their genre and venture out of their comfort zone to indulge in something new and exciting, not only for them but for their audience as well. This admiration is punctuated by the fact that not everyone who does this is successful at it. In fact, in my experience I've seen more failures and mediocre offerings then I have anything else (see The Hip Hop Violinist [Explicit]). That being said, Robert Glasper's Black Radio has definitely taken its place among the ranks of high quality music.

Being new to Robert Glasper, I admit that I was drawn in by the promise of the plethora of guest appearances by familiar faces, such as Musiq Soul Child, Lela Hathaway, Lupe Fiasco, Yassin Bey (aka Mos Def), Erykah Badu, Ledisi, and Bilal. Fortunately, I found that Glasper's ability to tastefully spread out the various talents found on this project is worthy of praise. With twelve different guest artists on an album, it can easily start to feel crowded like there's too much going on at once. Instead, what we're given as the final product is a euphoric blend of Jazz, Neo-Soul and Hip Hop that I can cool out to in the car with my speakers up, or vibe to at a live performance.

Each song seemed to be tailored (and most likely was) to the individual artists that appeared on them, but still making it very clear in its sound that this was Robert Glasper's album, not a compilation of sounds taken from different places. The integrity of Glasper's work is never compromised of overshadowed by any of the guest artists, only accentuated by energy their voices bring to each track. From beginning to end, it feels like listening to a live set that you don't want to leave your seat for.

Being primarily a Hip Hop head, I was particularly interested in how Lupe and Mos Def would be incorporated into the music, since both have stepped into the realms beyond their genre's as well. Thankfully, their presence was utilized well, making their performances sound genuinely organic. I found Mos's track "Black Radio" especially interesting, as he seemed very much at home from what I've heard from him in past works (see New Danger which is full of examples). Staying true to the idea of this being an "experiment," both Mos and the intstrumentation fly off in the the stratosphere playing off each other with varying tempos and vocal play from Mos himself that I find hard to describe in any other way but "interesting." By no means is it a bad thing, just worthy of note, and clearly he makes the track his own.

Overall, Black Radio is a solid body of work, fluid in its composition yet bold enough to make you stay and listen. Robert Glasper, despite being labeled simply as a Jazz musician, has successfully achieved crossing genre's and bringing different elements back to his own realm, giving us new and unique music to enjoy that will not disapoint. Having been thoroughly impressed by his latest work, I'll definitely be checking out his earlier stuff as well, and I'd encourage anyone else to do the same. Enjoy.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The F.M. Dial to Beautiful Music!, February 28, 2012

By 

LuKasAV6 (Longview, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Black Radio (Audio CD)

There was wonderful renaissance of neo-soul music that peaked in the 90s and was a wonderful soundtrack for the lives of urban contemporary music lovers. Robert Glasper is undoubtedly and purely inspired by the music of that era. A hybrid of soft jazz, hip-hop, and R&B, Black Radio is the soul music lover's 'Hearts of Space' odyssey. It is the F.M. dial to beautiful music that I could not recommend more highly.

He has drawn in some of the most respected musicians (Lalah Hathaway, Lupe Fiasco, Erykah Badu, Ledisi, Bilal to name a few) to contribute their talents to what will be one of my favorite albums this year. I hate to highlight any songs in particular because the entire album is consistently wonderful from beginning to end - so I won't.

It's intriguing that two of my favorite musicians, Robert Glasper and Esperanza Spalding, are releasing CDs this year with the word 'radio' in the albums' titles. (Esperanza's CD is entitled 'Radio Music Society'). With so much music becoming popular based on spectacle and ridiculous antics (as he touches upon at the end of "Gonna Be Alright"), it's refreshing and reassuring that artists like these are keeping the focus on musicianship. Black Radio is Robert Glasper at his best!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Black Radio' - The only thing to survive the crash in the quality of recent music, February 28, 2012

By 

TJL - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Radio (MP3 Download)

I received a review copy of this album a while ago, and have been highly recommending it ever since!

Robert Glasper is one of those rare musicians with the uncanny ability to see beyond what has been done and get straight to the heart of what is possible. He was once described as "one of the most promising Jazz pianists for a generation", and this album sees him enter a class of his own!

'Black Radio' represents a "a true crossover record", as Glasper himself put it. It's an amalgam of all the Jazz, Gospel, Soul, and Hip Hop traditions Glasper was raised in. With his Experiment band Casey Benjamin (Sax), Derrick Hodge (Bass), and Chris Dave (Drums), Glasper's `Black Radio' represents a clear progression from his fragmented 2009 offering `Double Booked', which saw half an album dedicated to Jazz and half to Hip Hop. These half-hearted attempts to incorporate Hip Hop into his music appear to be a thing of the past as he embraces all of his influences for his third Blue Note offering, which is sure to serve as an example of how Jazz/Hip Hop crossover should be done.

Glasper and his cohort are individuals pigeon-holed as `Jazz Musicians' that have now proven their reach beyond that or any other Genre. Tasteful isn't a word that can be used to describe many cross-over albums, but it is perfect in this case. Concessions are made in all the right places to ensure that perceptions and expectations are thrown out of the window in favor of the only thing that matters - The quality of The Music.

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