Photo Credit: Mike Schreiber

Robert Glasper’s music has not been on my radar as of late. Even though I have heard of the man, I never totally checked for him. Why? I have no clue. He has always put out great music. Yet, I would sleep. The jazz musician’s rep has grown. His highly instrumental and involved music has grabbed many ears and minds with much praise. With Black Radio, Glasper constructs a tightly woven effort of what the mainstream media is missing: music being made for music’s sake.

     Harkening to the days of albums that were played all the way through without skipping, Robert Glasper make sure that this piece of work didn’t require the skip button. Rightfully so, he succeeded in achieving that goal.

     The level of singing is, at best, highly impressive on this album. “Letter to Hermione” features Bilal doing what he does best: sing his heart out with little effort. “Cherish The Day” allows Lalah Hathaway channel a sampling of Sade to transform it into a love song of cosmically jazzy proportions. “The Consequences of Jealousy” has Meshell Ndegeocello doing that soul stirring music that makes her a fan favorite in the R&B realm. Robert Glasper knew exactly what he was doing when he collaborated with the artists on this composition.


 

 

       The production is just as worthy as the collaborators that had the chance to sing on them. “Lift Off” features a stirring piano loop and drums that make sure the soul is touched by the music. “Move Love” lets the stirring finger snaps and Fender Rhodes encapsulates the ears as the trio King sings about love. Even Stokley Williams is heavily supported by a moving sound bed to sing over when he is exposing his soul on “Why Do We Try”. By certain, this album presented a perfect union between lyrics and production.

     Black Radio will deservingly be in someone’s “Top #” hit list by the year’s end. It must be said that this album was just filled with great music. None of the fluff and commercial tinged singles occurred. Rather, it was all about jazzy, soulful R&B music. Many of us like to see things evolve. Others, however, like to delve into more classical sounds. Robert Glasper did the latter and created an album that can be appreciated for years to come. If only “black radio” sounded as good as Black Radio.

 

Article written by contributing writer, Mark A. Harris, for STACKS Magazine.