- Shemekia Copeland
Last night the Tomorrow Never Knows festival kicked off with a couple of shows, but things go full swing tonight and through the weekend with shows from some great bands, including Mutual Benefit, Darkside, San Fermin, and Roomrunner.
Grammy-winning pianist Robert Glasper has been spending the past few years blending the lines between R&B and jazz. Peter Margasak says of his 2012 release Black Radio, “There wasn’t a whole lot that anyone would recognize as jazz on that record; Glasper brought in an impressive collection of A-list singers and rappers, and most of the songs feature one of each. But it did establish the strength of Glasper’s band the Experiment, whose distinctive elements—Chris Dave’s hard, crisp drumming, Derrick Hodge’s anchoring but exploratory electric bass, Casey Benjamin’s saxophone accents and vocoderized vocals, and the leader’s airy, hypnotic Fender Rhodes vamps and terse improvisations—feel electrically connected into a single fluid circuit.” Glasper released a follow-up in October of last year. Margasak continues, “In October the Experiment released Black Radio 2 (with drummer Mark Colenburg replacing Dave), tightening its sound into a formula and employing an even larger cast of guests—Common, Jill Scott, Dwele, Lalah Hathaway, and surprises such as Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump and actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who delivers a spoken-word interlude about the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre on the album’s sole cover, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Jesus Children.’”
Sat 1/18: Sleeping Bag at Beat Kitchen
