School of Rock
Random article All articles A–Z
2 languages

Robert Glasper Experiment

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Robert Glasper Experiment is the electric group of the pianist Robert Glasper, who was born in 1978 and comes from Texas. Glasper began as a jazz pianist in church, where he learned to blend gospel harmony and jazz harmony. At the New School in New York he met the neo-soul singer Bilal. That led to a second career alongside jazz, between hip-hop and R&B. Glasper became, among other things, the musical director of Yasiin Bey, formerly Mos Def.

Music and breakthrough

The Experiment first appeared in 2009 on the album Double-Booked, on which Glasper plays both with an acoustic trio and with his electric band. It featured Derrick Hodge on bass, Casey Benjamin on saxophone and vocoder and Chris Dave on drums. Later Mark Colenburg took over on drums. The breakthrough album Black Radio was released in 2012, with guests such as Lupe Fiasco, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, Erykah Badu and Yasiin Bey. In 2013 it won the Grammy for best R&B album. Black Radio 2 followed in 2013, and in 2016 ArtScience, the first Experiment album without guest singers, on which all the members wrote and produced.

Influence

The group makes jazz that sounds like contemporary soul and hip-hop: loose rhythms, electric keyboards, the vocoder and room for improvisation. In doing so it built a bridge between the jazz audience and a younger audience and showed that jazz can sound like the music on the radio.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a track from Black Radio and notice the drums and the electric piano. Can you hear where the jazz is and where the hip-hop begins?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Categories: Artists