Customer Reviews

Double Booked

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently purchased Robert Glasper's newest album Double Booked pretty much on a whim. I had never heard his music or really heard of him aside from his name mentioned here & there in Jazztimes magazine. Well let me tell you I was more than happy that I had picked this up, within an hour that same day I picked up Glaspers previous Blue Note cd In My Element and downloaded his live 2nd set from bonnaroo 2007. Each album was great. Anyway Double Booked is actually two facets of Glasper's music. The first half of the album is an acoustic piano jazz trio with Vicente Archer on acoustic bass & Chris Dave on drums and the second half is what Robert calls The Robert Glasper Experiment with ?uestlove from the Roots at the drums and as creative counterpart,this music is more electrified and features vocals by Bilal and rapper Mos Def. It features sax man Casey Benjamin who also works with Stefon Harris & Blackout. On electric bass Derrick Hodge steps in replacing Archer. The music is a hybrid of experimental hip hop & acoustic jazz that draws on studio production techniques to great effect. They do a original take on Herbie Hancock's Butterfly featuring vocoder vocals & a different arrangment than usual. I personally fell that the experiment is cool but still in the experimental phase trying to soildifie their sound and falls alittle short overall compositionally. I prefer the trio half of the disc. Glasper has had much more time in this area to prefect his methods & approach to the jazz piano trio. He's hard to put a label on soundwise its definitely jazz but with R&B and pop overtones that are subtle enough to invite the listener and make the music that much more accessible. Fans of this album be sure to delve into Glasper's back log of albums on Blue Note his 1st Canvas & In My Element are great. Also the Bonnaroo live set is awesome! The trio mates are killing Chris Dave is a great drummer with a original sound & feel. Vicente Archer is a soild groove meister offering rock soild support. Check out these fantastic young jazzers.

Glasper continues to prove a singular voice in the field, perhaps dabbling too heavily into the realms of auto-tuned hip-hop influence for some lately, but certainly churning consistently conscious creativity as a result.

I saw the Robert Glasper Trio live in New York, which intrigued me to purchase the CD. This man is truly amazing. This is classic jazz. I'm sure that John Coltrane is looking down on him and smiling.

Since my introduction to the Canvas Album. Robert continues to advance his talents to new levels taking me to places that I had not dreamed of. You cannot call yourself a jazz advocate and miss out on this artist, for he will take you to places you have never been in the realm of Jazz MUSIC. Get "Double Booked" his latest and Enjoy!

I really liked Robert Glasper's "J Dillalude" and "FTB", from his last release, In My Element. A modern jazz pianist who worships at the altars of Thelonious Monk and J Dilla with the same fervor, Glasper brought a new approach to the classic trio approach.

On "Double Booked", Glasper aims to further eradicate the line between Monk and Dilla (two bonafide geniuses). The album is split into two halves, hence the album's title. The first being by the Robert Glasper Trio (classic trio style jazz) which is introduced by a telephone message from famed trumpeter Terence Blanchard, the second being the Robert Glasper Experiment (an execution into fusion), introduced by a phone message left by Roots leader-drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. Both sides are equally strong.

The highlights for me include the trio's rendition of Monk's "Think of One", which marries a segment of Ahmad Jamal's "Swahililand" (famously sampled by Dilla on De La Soul's classic "Stakes Is High"); the whimsy of "I'm Country (And That's OK)" and the blissfulness of the spacious closer "Open Mind".

However, I have to say that the title that really brings the house down is "All Matter". Bilal's quirkily emotive and pitch-perfect performance on this title is straight-up moving! (Especially when he goes off on the end! Whew!) I can actually say that along with his work with Sa-Ra, "All Matter" made me fan of Bilal's. (I wasn't really one beforehand, as his 2001 Interscope debut 1st Born Second, didn't move me for the most part). Glasper's multi-tier approach to the number, which sounded awkward on first listen, works really well with Bilal's vocal. "All Matter" more than earned its Grammy nomination! (It lost to India.Arie's cover of Sade's "Pearls".)

The only misstep in my opinion was the remake of Herbie Hancock's "Butterfly". I thought the snare drum intro and vocoderized vocals took away from some of the sheer beauty of Herbie's original.

Double Booked is a strong release by one of the brightest young lions in modern jazz who understands the genius of both Mr. Monk and Mr. Yancey and merges that appreciation and knowledge into a cohesive work that displays his own rising genius.

Recommended!

I heard this album playing at a local music store a week ago and I was intrigued. A couple days later I went back and picked up a copy. All I can say is "Wow!" This has definitely been one of my best music purchases in a while. Now, I must admit that I'm no jazz expert and only dabble in it occasionally. (I tune in to KCSM, a great jazz radio station in the San Francisco Bay area, from time to time. Yes, this is a plug, because they're a great station. Check out their live stream online if you like jazz.) I read some of the other reviews here before purchasing, so I was kind of curious to see how the second half of the album would hold up upon a closer listen. For my money, both halves are awesome and stand on their own. I haven't heard the rest of Robert Glasper's catalog, so I don't know how this compares with his other work, but I find the two different approaches part of what makes this album intriguing. The first half is solid jazz by a trio of talented musicians with Glasper's piano work striking the right balance between jazz improvization and catchy pop melodies. The second half is much more experimental, but I didn't find the transition from the first to the second half jarring. Big thumbs up overall for me.

I'm a fan of Glasper's works but this one is a bit differnt than the other albums he's put out. My personal favorite being In My Element. At first when I heard the album I like the first half where he does what he normally does best, but half way though he starts to change up his sounds using a more electronic "canned" sound and just overloads the final half with a bunch of sounds that just didn't mix. I was going to give this album a 3-star rating but after giving it a chance it starts to grow on you, I guess all you need is an appreciation for what he's trying to do and an open-mind. If you didn't like it the first go around try listening to it a couple more times I'm sure you'll fall in love with it.

This is my fourth CD from Robert Glasper, and the most eclectic one he's made. The last few tracks have an electronica sound to them, which is not found on the other three CDs, as well as a bit of experimentational work on a couple of other tracks. For me, it wasn't bad, just not what I was used to hearing from him. Overall though, it's still an excellent piece of work.

Very nice. Laid back grooves that make you want to move your head. After you hear it you want to a local jazz spot and chill and get intoxicated in the vibe.