Robert Glasper Returns To The Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Next Month

The award-winning composer, bandleader and keyboardist Robert Glasper will take the stage at the 14th Annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (PIJF), co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, on Saturday, September 21, 8:45 – 10:00 pm, in a Free concert on Liberty Avenue between 10th and 7th Streets downtown, near the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC), 980 Liberty Avenue. Backed by drummer Justin Tyson, bassist Burniss Travis and longtime collaborator DJ Jahi Sundance, Glasper returns to Pittsburgh with his modern meld of jazz, R&B, neo-soul, hip-hop, electronica, dub and dance genres.

 

Glasper has been effortlessly traveling between musical multiverses since he came on the New York City scene in 2003 from Houston's vaunted Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (where Beyoncé, Jason Moran and many other Houston musicians attended) via The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Glasper's panoramic pianism evolved from his childhood years of playing piano in his mother's Baptist church and in Catholic and Seventh-Day Adventist churches. He also heard his mother sing jazz and blues when she took him to the clubs where she performed. Those varied experiences instilled in Glasper an appreciation for many musical styles and the ability to play them.

 

Glasper has worked with some of his era's brightest jazz, rap and neo-soul stars including Kendrick Lamar, Jill Scott, Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove and Terence Blanchard. Armed with a piano sound that encompasses Thelonious Monk and Mulgrew Miller, Glasper's recorded nearly 20 records, remixes and EPs as a leader. They mainly consist of his jazz ensembles on Mood, In My Element and Covered with bassist Damion Reed and drummer Vincente Archer; and albums with his Robert Glasper Experiment featuring drummer Chris Dave, bassist Derrick Hodge and the late alto saxophonist/vocoder Casey Benjamin, performing his critically acclaimed series of Black Radio albums with Yasiin Bey, Lupe Fiasco, Lalah Hathaway, Q-Tip, Esperanza Spalding and Meshell Ndegeocello.

 

Along with his original compositions, Glasper is also an inspired and imaginative interpreter of rock, hip-hop and pop songs including Nirvana's “Smells Like Team Spirit,” David Bowie's “Letter to Hermione,” and Radiohead's “Everything in Its Right Place”.  “Dillalude,” Glasper's tribute to the late producer Jay Dilla blends jazz and hip hop. Glasper's five Grammy Awards include Best R&B Album (Black Radio, 2013); Best Traditional R&B Performance (“Jesus Children of America,” 2015); Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Miles Ahead, 2017); Best R&B song (“Better Than I Imagined,” 2021) and Best R&B Album (Black Radio III, 2023).

 

When Glasper returns to the PIJF stage, he brings with him the revived idea that the engagement of jazz with pop music is a necessary and mutually beneficial one.

 

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