The Power of Suggestion & the Pleasure of Groove in Robert
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A New Kind of Blue: The Power of Suggestion & the Pleasure of Groove in Robert Glasper’s Black Radio Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. Abstract: This essay places the important Robert Glasper Experiment recording “Black Radio” (2012) within its artistic, commercial, and critical contexts. As a project that combines genres, “Black Radio” did more than challenge different communities of listeners; it invited them to see how Glasper’s sonic juxta- positions could be logically aligned. Jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and gospel merge in “Black Radio” to form a stylish, forward-looking contribution that won popular and critical successes. Glasper and his ensemble toy with the social contracts that have established boundaries around sonic language; indeed, he makes their territories feel seamless and natural. Because of the success of the project, we may be witnessing a post-genre moment that disrupts traditional ideas about music that have been preciously held in the industry since it emerged in the late-nineteenth century. “C hanging the game!” exclaimed the press photog- rapher at pianist Robert Glasper’s standing-room- only appearance at World Café Live in Philadelphia in the spring of 2012. “Yeah, no doubt,” a middle- aged man shot back in enthusiastic agreement. The midsized auditorium was ½lled with an interracial, intergenerational crowd of listeners enveloped in the mesh of sound worlds that Glasper presented GUTHRIE P RAMSEY JR with both commitment and ease. , ., is the The audience’s enthusiasm for the Robert Glasper Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music at the Experiment’s landmark 2012 release Black Radio Uni versity of Pennsylvania. His (Blue Note)–and its accompanying promotional publications include The Amazing tour–was af½rmed by the American music indus- Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, try’s arbiters of taste. To much surprise, Black Radio and the Challenge of Bebop (2013), received a Grammy Award nomination in two cat- Race Music: Black Cultures from Be - egories: Best R&B Performance for “Gonna Be bop to Hip-Hop (2003), and the forth - Alright (F.T.B.),” featuring Ledisi; and Best R&B coming Who Hears Here?: Essays on Black Music History and Society. He is Album. Even before it debuted, there was steady also pianist, composer, and arranger buzz about what the recording’s aesthetic ap - for the Philadelphia-based band proach and its critical reception might mean to the Dr. Guy’s MusiQology. future of jazz. Now, in the wake of its release, it is © 2013 by Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. doi:10.1162/DAED_a_00240 120 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/DAED_a_00240 by guest on 01 October 2021 clear that Black Radio’s influence extends their more traditional competencies in Guthrie P. well beyond the jazz world, as evidenced composition and performance, as well as Ramsey, Jr. by the R&B branding. Like Miles Davis’s in marketing and promotion. This new- pivotal 1959 album Kind of Blue, which found freedom has allowed ambitious signaled a new direction for modern jazz, musicians and producers to break out of Black Radio may indeed qualify as a game genre boxes and craft conceptually adven- changer. turous projects. Some creators intention- ally share their work free-of-charge on New York Times music critic Nate Chi- the social media sites Facebook, Twitter, nen wrote that Black Radio was “the rare and YouTube before they actually “drop” album of its kind that doesn’t feel strained through traditional commercial avenues. by compromise or plagued by problems Many recordings appear only in these on - of translation.”1 Such a synthesis of line outlets and attract thousands of lis- styles is quite a feat given that jazz, R&B, teners without the help of a record label. and hip-hop have developed dissimilar A new music economy has been estab- social contracts with audiences, a chasm lished, in which record and marketing ex - made glaringly clear by hip-hop’s emer- ecutives no longer exclusively determine gence as a commodity in the 1980s and what music is entitled to widespread dis- the almost contemporaneous “young semination. One of the most exciting lions” movement that shot Wynton Mar - results of this shift is that informal musi- salis and his co-conspirators of young, cal collectives have begun to work across mostly male jazz musicians to stardom. genre lines (those imaginary sonic bound - In public and private discourse, these neo - aries that exclude more than they invite), classicist hard boppers were pitted against creating new audience alliances as well. the sample-½lled digital soundscapes of Although he is contracted with Blue hip-hop producers (“they are not even Note, the label historically associated with ‘real’ musicians”) and their rapping, “straight-ahead” jazz, Glasper proves him - rhyming counterparts (“they are really not self in his latest release to be in the avant- musicians”). Although some critics could garde of this exciting new aesthetic wave. engage with each of these sound worlds, That is not to say that there are not many listeners remained wedged between sonic precursors to Black Radio’s appealing polarizing aesthetic discussions that in - new sounds. Chinen’s article mentions a spired a politics of division. few such milestone performers: Miles That was the 1980s. Dramatic changes Davis, Guru, A Tribe Called Quest, De La in the recording industry over the last Soul, and Roy Hargrove. Each artist/group ½fteen years have opened up new creative has produced projects that blend elements opportunities for artists, and musicians of jazz with those of other popular styles. are taking full advantage of them. Talented We can push the list back further in time independent engineers and producers, to include innovators like pianist Ramsey armed with relatively high-quality per- Lewis, the father of “soul-jazz,” who has sonal recording studios, have increased continued to build a vibrant career slid- exponentially; it’s now a literal cottage ing effortlessly across the jazz/pop con- industry. And because of the digital revo- tinuum. The clear-headed and creative ad - lution, which provided cost-effective ac - venturer Herbie Hancock, too, stands as a cess to cutting-edge technologies, many towering inspiration to genre-crossing musicians have become astute in engi- artists, both in spirit and in technical exe- neering and production in addition to cution. 142 (4) Fall 2013 121 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/DAED_a_00240 by guest on 01 October 2021 A New And we must not overlook, as is all too criticism of his dual pedigree in hip-hop Kind of often the practice, the important women and jazz, while also providing ample space Blue: Robert contributors to this aesthetic shape-shift- for experimentation. Glasper’s ing sensibility. Gospel great Elbernita Beginning with an impressive set of trio “Black Radio” “Twinkie” Clark’s songwriting, singing, recordings in the tradition of, most obvi- and Hammond B-3 playing did much to ously, bebop pianist Bud Powell (always a set that genre on an unapologetic and litmus test for the modern jazz pianist), sonically ecumenical path throughout the Glasper’s recorded output gradually 1980s and beyond. Pianist and composer moved into other conceptual and sonic Patrice Rushen’s work boasted a pre- territories. Brands are powerful entities, scient eclecticism that surely provided particularly in the music industry. Al - neo-soul rhythm and acid jazz tracks though he claims roots in gospel, R&B, some of their harmonic approaches. jazz, and hip-hop, Glasper entered into Bassist and songwriter Meshell Ndegeo- public awareness as a “jazz pianist,” and cello’s virtuosic musicianship and fluency it is hard to break away from that rubric in hip-hop, pop, funk, soul, and jazz–and once it sticks. The same is true for any artist the singular and courageous way she whose work is marketed in a system that combines the genres–must be consid- makes money from rigid predictability. ered a signpost in this discussion. This “agreement” becomes a social con- tract that ultimately seeks to dictate what As a subject of written criticism and artists produce, how companies sell con- promotion, as a live performance event, tent, and the spending and listening habits and as a recording, Black Radio deserves of speci½c demographics. Although Glas - our careful attention. But precisely what per was branded as a jazz musician, he has part of the Black Radio project suggests also maintained highly visible collabora- that we are in the midst of a post-genre tions with the revered hip-hop producer moment, a wholesale realignment of the and beat-maker J Dilla (James Dewitt Yan - traditional social contracts governing cey) and the rapper Q-Tip (of the critically music creation, dissemination, and con- acclaimed group A Tribe Called Quest). sumption in the industry? Black Radio’s What we think of as the essence of jazz sense of aesthetic balance–of getting it today developed during the 1940s bebop just right–is key to our understanding, revolution. As historian Scott DeVeaux and it may be derived from two provoca- has explained: tive musical choices: 1) a self-conscious In the wake of bebop, we no longer think of foregrounding of digital technology in jazz improvisation as a way of playing tunes the soundscape, including tricked-out but as an exacting art form in itself that mixes and effects, among other tech- happens, as a rule, to use popular music as niques; and 2) a harmonic palette drawn a point of departure. In the hands of a jazz from the progressive post-bop vocabu- improviser, a copyrighted popular song is lary, featuring close, infectious harmonies less text than pretext. Its crucial identifying that pivot around common tones and feature–melody–is erased in the heat of shifting tonal centers.