The jazz pianist’s follow-up to his Grammy-winning album contains more neo soul and high-profile collaborations
Three years ago, because of his creative detours into the world of hip hop, Robert Glasper was well known for a jazz pianist. And then he won a Grammy and became (almost) famous for winning the Best R&B Album category, even though Black Radio was more of a jazzy neo-soul outing.
Nevertheless, things change once you’ve won such a conspicuous award. And in this case it means Black Radio 2 has “more songwriters… because this time we had to go straight to radio,” says the Texas native. “Before we didn’t have to do that because the radio wasn’t looking for us.”
Glasper also wanted the follow-up’s songwriting to be “a little more R&B now that all eyes are on us”, which means Black Radio 2 is less jazzy and more neo soul-y. High-profile collaborations from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Lupe Fiasco, Emeli Sandé and Faith Evans complete the package, which is out on October 28, 2013.
To give you a taste of what’s on offer, on this page are three “lyric videos”, plus Glasper’s collaboration with Jill Scott entitled Call.
Black Radio 2 can be bought at iTunes, Amazon and pretty much everywhere.
Pic credit: Janette Beckman