On Monday, the prodigious Robert Glasper took over the festival’s biggest outdoor stage with top-class musicians: Burniss Travis on bass, Justin Tyson on drums, Derrick Hodge on guitar, Jahisundance on DJing and beatmaking. The guitarist is a pure killer, capable of unleashing the fastest, most complex phrases. The bassist is a perfect sideman for jazz groove, and capable of rich and complex harmonies since his bass has 6 strings. The drummer follows in the footsteps of the best, having integrated hip-hop and drum’n’bass rhythms originally conceived by beatmakers and their machines. The DJ’s references are essential to the smooth running of the program. So far, so good.
On Monday evening, the Houston-born musician defended his formula Black Radio, known to jazz fans since 2012 and released on 3 studio albums since then, the groove for many, a sort of current extension of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters. The idea is to blend jazz with recent forms of Afro-American pop culture, and thus inject groove, melody and fun.
The virtuoso keyboardist has presented the concept a few times, and now here he is in front of his biggest audience yet. But… no special arrangements for his approach, no extra ” friends ” as the title suggested. Same approach as two years ago, but a little less messy, a little more collected, and no extra ideas on the program and technical prowess in the final straight. A little singing on his part, covers of Nirvana, Radiohead or even Burt Bacharach, nothing new under the setting sun or the rising stars.
Female voices give us the impression that they are on stage as backing singers, and we realize that they come from the DJ/beatmaker’s pre-recorded sounds. With the fee he takes for such an evening, he could have thought of something more special but no. No staging, no special guests, no special projections, just that ghetto blaster as a backdrop. Robert Glasper would have given the same concert in a 1,000-seat venue, but he finds himself giving one of the biggest shows of his career, with no extra preparation. A little less pocket than in 2022 at Théâtre Maisonneuve, but still… nothing memorable for those who know the beast well.
So promising two decades ago, Robert Glasper has developed a taste for cash and the good life, with all the promoters giving him what he wants and audiences flocking to his concerts. Why change at all? More demanding music lovers will come back… or one day leave this easy zone for good.
crédit photo :@frederiquema
