Robert Glasper
Double Booked (Blue Note)
Reviewed by Chase Hoffberger, Fri., Jan. 15, 2010
Robert Glasper
Double Booked (Blue Note)Jazz traditionalists will wish they could have gotten more of Robert Glasper's Trio on the Houston native's most recent Double Booked, but anyone familiar with the 30-year-old pianist knows there's no sense in confinement. As a longtime collaborator of Mos Def, J Dilla, Q Tip, and the Roots, Glasper's musical tendencies lie as close to hip-hop as they do to traditional jazz, a fact made most evident on the tease of De La Soul's "Stakes Is High" midway through Thelonious Monk's "Think of One." Split into two parts – first half with the Trio, second with his Experiment, which features Casey Benjamin on both saxophone and vocoder – Booked is just as much about Glasper's unique vision (the Bilal-featured "All Matter") as it is his tangled piano phrasings ("No Worries"). Approach it with an "Open Mind."
