Black Radio
- Robert Glasper
- Band Name: Robert Glasper
- Record Label: Blue Note
- Release Date: Feb 28, 2012
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Feb 28, 201290Overall, Black Radio surpasses the excellence of Double Booked, which is a brilliant album in its own right.
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Feb 28, 201290Black Radio creates an entirely new context for popular music in its near erasure of boundaries. It is the sound of the future--even if no one knows it yet.
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Mar 12, 201289Glasper managed to create a beautiful album from start to finish that will easily be added into conversations with greats like John Coltrane's Blue Train.
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Feb 28, 201288Anchored by Glasper's masterful, hypnotic work on piano and Rhodes, and filled with cameos by the likes of Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, Yasmin Bey (a.k.a. Mos Def), Lupe Fiasco and more, it's a sensuous and smoky affair.
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Mar 7, 201283The groove is the thing. [9 Mar 2012, p.80]
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Mar 7, 201280Skillfully and bewitchingly arranged, its neatest trick is in the way it enfolds so many distinct personalities into Glasper's own vision, his music always complementing their voices without ever being dominated by them.
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Mar 1, 201280It might not work for fans of Glasper's acoustic-jazz firework display at the 2010 London jazz festival, but this rare artist can straddle idiomatic gaps, and doesn't compromise to do it.
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Apr 2, 201270With music this smart and inviting, the implied diss of mainstream mediocrity doesn't feel like sour grapes; it feels like a blueprint forward.
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Mar 15, 201267Sometimes, he floats as a delicate mist (around the vocals of Erykah Badu on Mongo Santamaria's enduring "Afro Blue.") At other points, he's a guiding light, riding the beat ("Why Do We Try.")
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Jul 10, 201260It's when the rappers stand down that it hits its stride. [Jun 2012, p.108]
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Mar 15, 201260Glasper's formidable jazz chops are the album's constant attribute.
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Mar 7, 201260It's an ingenious arrangement, featuring juddering, minimal percussion, spare piano chords and vocoders that soar to the edge of the studiosphere, worth the price of the album alone. [Mar 2012, p.84]
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Feb 29, 201260This isn't amateur soul or faux hip-hop. But it's not a bold pop record either. It's a kind of compromise, perhaps.
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Feb 28, 201260In between strong original songs are arresting covers versions. [Mar 2012, p.92]
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Feb 29, 201250Black Radio would have been more successful if the music used some of jazz's subtle spontaneity in the arrangements instead of satisfying itself by going for the easy laidback vibe.