ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT at the Horseshoe, Tuesday, June 25. Rating: NNNN
Opening his Horseshoe set with a promise to “play some deep shit,” Robert Glasper wasted little time busting out the experimental jazz he’s famous for. Amid thick humidity in a packed house of hipsters next to business types behind teens beside old-school jazz heads, the Robert Glasper Experiment – consisting of Glasper, a sax player, drummer and bassist – delivered a two-hour show that spanned every musical genre imaginable.
Between songs, Glasper told us that Black Radio 2 will be released in September (a single will drop in July). He leaked that Brandy, Common and Dwele will be on the project before saying he couldn’t reveal anything more.
While the very mention of Glasper’s Grammy-winning Black Radio made the crowd collectively swoon, the real highlight of the night were the covers. With the aid of a vocoder, Glasper and co. recreated the recent (Daft Punk’s Get Lucky), classic (Sade) and nostalgic (Nirvana).There was an awed hush followed by appreciative love for Kanye and Jay-Z’s No Church In The Wild – it felt both religious and rebellious.
How to top that? An audience singalong to Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time during the encore, natch.