Transcendent Music Movement Presents: Robert Glasper

http://blogs.opb.org/kmhd/2012/03/19/artist-interview-robert-glasper/glasper-3/

Transcendent Music Movement Presents: Robert Glasper

YouTube has undoubtedly been a tremendous asset to music.  In the advent of social media and video sharing sites such as YouTube, I have been exposed to so many great musicians.  YouTube has exposed me many of the TRANSCENDENT musical artists that I have profiled on this blog.  Some years ago, I discovered a unique and talented artist on YouTube, and have followed his career ever since.  That artist is the one-and-only, Jazz pianist, Robert Glasper.

One-and-only is not used frivolously in describing Mr. Glasper.  Robert Glasper was born in Houston Texas where he was exposed to gospel, Jazz and Blues music at an early age.  Glasper’s mother played piano and was in the choir at their family church.  She also played Jazz and Blues professionally with a band at different venues in town.  Glasper’s mother took young Robert along to her gigs, and used them as a modified daycare center.  Robert Glasper’s mother was his biggest musical influence during his development as a young musician.  Twelve-year-old Glasper began playing for his church and later developed aspirations to become a Jazz musician.  Like many Black musicians, church was the place where Glasper cultivated his craft.  It was there where Glasper realized the power of music and how audiences could be moved by it.  When speaking about playing in the church in his bio on allaboutjazz.com he was quoted saying:

It definitely just gave me that sensitivity and knowing how to reach people and knowing how to be in tune with your feelings and the emotion of the music. My thing is, it helps me relate to the audience 'cause they're gonna give you what you give them. When you bring the crowd into your world, you can do anything you want.

Let’s discuss his music.  Jazz is a very broad genre.  There is Smooth Jazz, Jazz-Fusion, Classical Jazz, Big Band Jazz and this list probably could stretch the length of this blog.  Robert Glasper is a Jazz pianist whose skills, at their core, put him in the ranks of the greatest Jazz musicians of all times.  His skills as a jazz pianist are often compared to Thelonious Monk.  Robert Glasper has made it a point for his music not to be limited or categorized as strictly Jazz.  He has capitalized on his ability to dabble in almost any genre and has stretched the boundaries of what is stereotypically Jazz.  Yet, his music could not be mistaken for anything other than Jazz, which is an interesting dynamic of his music.  Glasper is quoted in an article on his website saying, “We can go anywhere, literally anywhere, we want to go. We all have musical ADD and we love it.”  The point he was making is that all of the musicians in his band enjoy varying genres and styles of music.  They are almost incapable of focusing on a single sound of music.  Consequently, they have broad influence and enjoy playing a lot of different types of music.  This is what makes Robert Glasper such a standout artist.  He is one of the few artists who can intermingle Jazz with Hip-Hop and R&B in a way that can both be respected by Jazz enthusiasts and also enjoyed by Hip-Hop and R&B listeners. 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/black-radio/id488036560

Robert Glasper along with his band, The Robert Glasper Experiment, and a host of featured vocalists showcased the TRANSCENDENT qualities of his music in his newest Album.  In February 2012 Robert released his fourth album, Black Radio.  Black Radio includes Robert Glasper’s extremely complex piano scores with Hip Hop style backbeats and R&B and Hip-Hop vocals from artists including Erykah Badu, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, Yasiin Bey and Lupe Fiasco, just to name a few.  The beautiful thing about this album is its expansiveness.  It draws you in with its Hip-Hop elements and moves you with Jazz permeating throughout the entire album.  Robert is an exciting artist to listen to.  His collaborative efforts in this album are going to attract a broader audience and introduce new listeners to Jazz in an indirect way.  The TRANSCENDENT MUSIC MOVEMENT supports Robert Glasper’s spectacular work and encourages our readers to view his videos and listen to his music.  Black Radio is a great album to start with.  Every one of his albums has presented a different style of Glasper’s extraordinarily unique Jazz form.  There is something for everyone in Robert Glasper’s TRANSCENDENT MUSIC.

The Transcendent Music Movement Presents: Gary Clark, Jr.

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/interview-blues-sensation-gary-clark-jr-on-influences-guitars-and-technique-519939

The Transcendent Music Movement Presents: Gary Clark, Jr.

Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Etta James, Ray Charles, Jimmi Hendrix and the list goes on of genuine blues artists who gained popularity in their youth.  Unfortunately, this list has become relatively stagnant in recent years.  Susan Tedeschi and Derrick Trucks of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, John Mayer, The Black Keys and a few others have contributed to the survival of American Blues as a relevant music genre.  Not to take anything away from these spectacular musicians, but even these popular artists are not always considered the most pure of blues artists.  They are an apparent derivative of the classic blues artist.  Their music is undoubtedly rooted in the American Blues of old; but when it comes to the raw, gritty, pure blues musicianship of those in the aforementioned list; there have been very few to gain the notoriety of those blues musicians preceding the 90s.  Austin Texas may very well have produced a lifeline for traditional blues in the form of a young man by the name of Gary Clark, Jr.

Twenty seven year old Gary Clark, Jr. is a rare commodity in modern music.  Blues has been unable to penetrate the fold of popular music recently.  It has been a genre mostly appreciated by older generations.  Artists like John Mayor and The Black Keys have introduced America’s youth to remnants of traditional blues with their blues influenced pop music.  They are also of the few popular blues artists under the age of 40 to have major success in modern music.  Susan Tedeschi and Derrick Trucks of the Tedeschi Trucks Band and artist like Eric Clapton continue making popular classic blues influenced music but they too commenced their blues careers preceding the 90s.  Gary Clark, Jr., however, is on the verge of being one of the extremely rare artists of this century to break in to popular music, under the age of 40, while remaining true to a pure form of blues.  His youthfulness is the surprising factor.  I am unaware of anyone of his likeness to rise to such popularity since at least the 90s.

Gary Clark, Jr. caught my attention with a YouTube video of him performing If You Love Me Like You Say.  The music that I was hearing had the spirit of Muddy Waters, Freddie King and other classic black Blues artists.  I was amazed by his performance, which was of the truest Blues form.   As I viewed his performances I saw the spirit and energy of a young Jimmy Hendrix, with his commanding electric guitar riffs.  Then I heard the clever soulful lyrics reminiscent of B.B. King.  Gary Clark, Jr.’s performance of the Blues reminded me that this genre was once popular in black culture and indeed dominated by African American Musicians at one point in time.  Recently, most of the popular blues artists have been white musicians.  These artists have done a tremendous job in sustaining the Blues.  While this new diversity has been beneficial to the genre, it is unequivocally shameful that the prominence of blues in the black musical culture has fallen to near extinction.  Gary Clark, Jr. brings that classic blues form back to the forefront.  Gary Clark, Jr., born in Austin Texas, has been playing the blues for years as a hometown celebrity and as a surrogate for traditional blues.  

The Texas budding star got his break after a stellar performance at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival.  At the festival, he performed his Don’t Owe You a Thang.  He also performed with Eric Clapton and Sheryl Crow.  He has since received a major recording deal and has subsequently produced and released his first E.P. entitled The Bright Lights EP.  I have had this four track E.P. on repeat for days now.  I have also enjoyed his many video performances online.  The Transcendent Music Movement and I are extremely excited about this artist’s potential.  We hope to see him become a catalyst for a greater appreciation of musicianship by the black community and classic blues throughout the world.  His popularity can lead to greater exposure of classic blues and may lead to more young people playing and appreciating the Blues again.  We wish Gary Clark, Jr. a prosperous future as a true blues artist and encourage our readers to support him as he continues to make TRANSCENDENT MUSIC.