Robert Glasper

Robert Andre Glasper (born April 6, 1978) is an American pianist, record producer, songwriter, and musical arranger.

His music embodies numerous musical genres, primarily centered around jazz.

To date, Glasper has won five Grammy Awards and received eleven nominations across eight categories.

He was in the second Vail Jazz Workshop in 1997, and went on to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City.

At the New School, Glasper met neo-soul singer Bilal.

They began performing and recording together, which led to associations with a variety of hip hop and R&B artists parallel to Glasper's emerging jazz career.

Robert Glasper straddles two distinct worlds.

He is an accomplished jazz pianist who was signed to Blue Note Records in his mid-twenties.

And he works with many hip-hop and R&B artists, both in the studio and on the stage: Q-Tip (musician), Mos Def, and Maxwell, to name a few.

Glasper cites A Tribe Called Quest as his gateway to hip-hop.

Glasper's playing career was launched in earnest whilst still studying at The New School in New York when he started touring as a sideman with some of the established greats of the scene (bassist Christian McBride, and trumpeters Terence Blanchard and Roy Hargrove).

At the same time, Robert was forging a friendship with his New School-mate Bilal, as well as a musical bond that saw them embedded in a burgeoning hip hop and neo soul movement alongside era-defining artists such as Jill Scott, The Roots, and J Dilla—during which time Glasper became music director for Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def).

Glasper released his first album, Mood, in 2002 with Fresh Sound New Talent.

Mood features six original compositions alongside versions of the jazz standards including Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage".

Primarily a piano trio recording, with Bob Hurst on bass and Damion Reid on drums, the album also features saxophonists Marcus Strickland and John Ellis, along with the vocalist Bilal.

Around this time, Glasper recorded with Bilal at Electric Lady Studios for the singer's unreleased but widely leaked second album, Love for Sale.

In 2005, Glasper released his debut on Blue Note Records, Canvas, with what was to become his quintessential piano trio lineup of Vicente Archer on bass and Damion Reid on drums.

The album features nine original compositions alongside a cover of Herbie Hancock's "Riot".

His third album, In My Element, was released in 2007 and includes songs written in honor of Glasper's mother ("Tribute") and hip hop producer J Dilla ("J Dillalude").

The pianist also revisits Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" in what was becoming his signature fusion style, moving between contemporary and classic as it segues into a version of Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place", and quoting Duke Ellington's "Fleurette Africaine".

Glasper's 2009 album, Double-Booked, is divided between songs performed by Glasper in an acoustic piano trio format, and his groundbreaking electric group, The Experiment, with Derrick Hodge, Casey Benjamin, and Chris "Daddy" Dave.

The album features guest vocals and spoken-word appearances by Bilal and Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def).

The track "All Matter", which featured Bilal, received a 2010 Grammy Award nomination for Best Urban/Alternative Performance.

Glasper's breakout album Black Radio (2012) peaked at number 15 on the Billboard 200 chart, becoming his highest charting album and won the Grammy for best R&B album.

The following year, he released the album Black Radio 2.

In February 2012, Glasper released his fifth and seminal album Black Radio, which featured performances by a lineup of neo-soul and hip-hop artists including Lupe Fiasco, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway, Erykah Badu, and Yasiin Bey.

Black Radio was met with both commercial success (a #10 debut on Billboard's Top Current Albums chart) and critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone declaring that it "feels like a blueprint forward", and went on to win the 2013 Grammy for best R&B album.

Following this, he worked with Kendrick Lamar, playing the keyboard on Lamar's album To Pimp a Butterfly (2015).

He would also appear on the soundtrack for the 2015 drama film Miles Ahead.

Outside of his own musical work, he has co-written and produced on albums by Mac Miller, Anderson .Paak, Banks, Herbie Hancock, Big K.R.I.T., Brittany Howard, Bilal, Denzel Curry, Q-Tip, and Talib Kweli amongst others.

He won the 2017 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for his song "A Letter to the Free" featured in Ava DuVernay’s critically hailed documentary, 13th, with Common and Karriem Riggins.

Glasper also composed the score for the documentary film The Apollo, and composed the original score for Issa Rae’s The Photograph.

He has also been an Artist in Residence at some of the most prestigious festivals and institutions worldwide, including the London Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, The Kennedy Center, Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, and the Blue Note Jazz Club.

Glasper's earliest musical influence was his mother, Kim Yvette Glasper, who sang jazz and blues professionally.

She took her son with her to club dates rather than leave him with babysitters.

She was the music director at the East Wind Baptist Church, where Glasper first performed in public.

He performed during services at three churches: Baptist, Catholic, and Seventh-day Adventist.

Glasper has said that he first developed his sound in church, where he learned his own way to hear harmony and was inspired to mix church and gospel harmonies with jazz harmonies.

Glasper attended Elkins High School in Missouri City, Texas, and the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

In tenth grade he performed with the jazz band at Texas Southern University.