The Robert Glasper Experiment & Bilal @ Chicago’s Double Door – March 10, 2012

Last weekend I had the pleasure of finally witnessing The Robert Glasper Experiment do their thing. Although drummer Chris “Daddy” Dave wasn’t on this tour, replacement Mark Colenburg more than held his own. (As I knew he would after I saw him play with The Robert Glasper Trio last month in St. Louis. Don’t miss my audio recording of that here.)

On this chilly Chicago night, special guest Bilal joined the Experiment for 3 tunes: the David Bowie cover, Letter To Hermione, the J Dilla produced Reminisce, and his seminal piece, All Matter. On top of that, the Experiment played for well over 2 hours without a break. One of the highlights for me was Glasper repeatedly teasing Radiohead‘s Everything In Its Right Place during this 6 minute piano solo, which led into All Matter. I ended up shooting 48 minutes of footage using my video camera, external microphone and monopod. Check it out below:

The Robert Glasper Experiment
March 10, 2012 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
Butterfly (Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters cover):

The Robert Glasper Experiment
March 10, 2012 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
Lift Off (inc. drum solos):

The Robert Glasper Experiment & Bilal
March 10, 2012 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
Reminisce:

The Robert Glasper Experiment & Bilal
March 10, 2012 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
Piano solo (inc. Everything In Its Right Place teases) > All Matter:

The Robert Glasper Experiment & Bilal
March 10, 2012 – Chicago, IL @ Double Door
All Matter (continued):

The Robert Glasper Experiment:
Robert Glasper: keys
Casey Benjamin: saxophones, keytar, vocoder, keys
Derrick Hodge: bass
Mark Colenburg: drums
+ special guest Bilal: vocals

Full setlist: A Love Supreme (John Coltrane cover), A Tear To A Smile (Roy Ayers cover), Butterfly (Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters cover), Letter To Hermione (David Bowie cover) (with Bilal), Lift Off (inc. drum solos), Bass solo > Say Yes (Floetry cover), Cherish The Day (Sade cover), Reminisce (with Bilal), Piano solo (w/ Everything In It’s Right Place teases) > All Matter (with Bilal), Ah Yeah > Drum solo > Smells Like Teen Spirit

If you made it this far, then you’re probably interested in the other Robert Glasper recordings I’ve been posting lately:
(1) these 3/20/12 Experiment Chicago videos
(2) 2/27/12 Experiment WNYC radio session audio here
(3) Experiment with Roy Ayers & Pete Rock @ North Sea Jazz Fest last year here
and
(4) there are 2 other goodies, but you’ll have to search my facebook page for it (hint: March 3rd).

AUDIO: The Robert Glasper Trio – 2/11/12 – St. Louis, MO @ Jazz At The Bistro

When Robert Glasper arrived at St. Louis’ premier jazz venue, Jazz At The Bistro, he promptly apologized for twice canceling prior engagements at the club (one due to the birth of his child and another due to a call from Maxwell to go on tour). He more than made up for it with 2 sets of his pensive yet blissful piano playing. With him were fellow Houstonian Alan Hampton on upright bass and St. Louis native Mark Colenburg on the drum kit.

Glasper recounted how he met Colenburg back in 1999 at this very club and how he recommended Colenburg to Common for the Like Water For Chocolate tour. Quite expectedly, Colenburg showed and proved in his hometown with two snare drums, plenty of chops, and a heavy nod to J Dilla‘s fluid yet angular sense of rhythm.

With the news of Whitney Houston‘s unexpected passing, Glasper dedicated the first tune to her, beginning the 20+ minute piece with a meditative and lengthy solo piano improvisation. After a short “J Dillalude”, Glasper jokingly name dropped 11 of the 12 guests appearing on his new album, Black Radio, and reminded everyone that the new album drops in 2 weeks. In his words, “cop that”. He closed the early show by taking requests, to which at least two audience members immediately shouted “F.T.B.” without hesitation. When someone asked “what does it stand for?”, Glasper declined to answer, preferring to “keep it off record”. Your guess is as good as mine. Notably, the trio teased The Roots‘ Grammy award winning song, “You Got Me”, as the final notes of the set.

Playing to a totally different, and noticeably younger and whiter, crowd for the late show, the trio stretched out much further. The set began with 30 minutes of non-stop music that shifted from on point jazz changes to open solos to an improvisation in which Glasper took a candle holder from the front table and held it to the piano strings as he played. (In fact, this is the section you hear on the streaming audio, above). After an hour of mesmerizing sounds, as icing on top, the show closed with a vamped out instrumental version of Q-Tip‘s track “You” from The Renaissance album. Completely satisfied, the crowd didn’t push for an encore, content to disperse back out into the cold night.

Here at Funk It, we like to bring only the choice content. So download our full 130 minute audio recording and don’t forget to spread the word about this blog to other like minded music lovers!

MP3 DOWNLOAD LINK (ZIP)

FLAC DOWNLOAD LINK (TORRENT)

Robert Glasper Trio
February 11, 2012
St. Louis, MO @ Jazz At The Bistro
Source: internal mics > Tascam DR-2d > WAV > Cool Edit Pro > FLAC
Location: In my jacket pocket. Early show: 2nd table dead center. Late show: 2nd table slightly to the right.
Recorded by RLBayers for Funk It Blog (http://funkit.virose.net/).

Early Show: 7:30pm
01. Glasper speaks
02. Canvas (Dedicated to Whitney Houston) >
03. No Worries *
04. J Dillalude
05. Drum solo > F.T.B. > You Got Me outro

Late Show: 9:30pm
01. Glasper speaks
02. Rise And Shine > drum solo > bass solo > Improv # >
03. ???
04. Glasper speaks
05. Smells Like Teen Spirit [Nirvana]
06. G & B (inc. bass solo) >
07. I Have A Dream [Herbie Hancock] >
08. You [Q-Tip]

Robert Glasper: piano, fender rhodes (on F.T.B. only)
Alan Hampton: bass
Mark Colenburg: drums

* My batteries died so about 6 or 7 minutes is missing in the middle. The track fades in and out at 4min43sec.

# Robert asked the audience member at the front table for the glass candle holder (with the small lit candle in it), then Robert held the candle holder to the piano strings while playing.

Roy Ayers live with Robert Glasper Experiment & Pete Rock

Roy Ayers, Peter Rock & The Robert Glasper Experiment – July 9, 2011 @ North Sea Jazz Festival – We Live In Brooklyn, Baby

This week I want to hip you to the Robert Glasper Experiment. This group has seamlessly melded jazz and hip hop like no one else. We’re talking about Robert Glasper on piano and fender rhodes, Chris “Daddy” Dave on drums, Derrick Hodge on bass and Casey Benjamin on sax and keytar/vocoder.

Roy Ayers is another artist that is known for melding genres by forever blurring the lines between jazz, funk and soul. So his pairing with the Robert Glasper Experiment at last summer’s North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands was only fitting.

It all started back in April of 2010 when Revive Music Group organized a Roy Ayers Tribute in Harlem that paired the Robert Glasper Experiment with legendary hip-hop producer and DJ, Pete Rock, and contemporary jazz vibraphonist, Stefon Harris. (Check All The Way Live’s exclusive audio recording.) It was also at this April 24, 2010 tribute show that Roy Ayers himself was presented with a Legends and Legacy Award and joined the group for a rendition of his hit, “Searching.” (See the videos here.)

The Roy Ayers Tribute was performed again by the Robert Glasper Experiment, Pete Rock & Stefon Harris on September 11, 2011 in Paris, France. At that show, Bilal joined the group for an expansive and mind-blowing version of “Everybody Loves The Sunshine”. (The full video is on youtube and mp3s are known to circulate of both this show and the Robert Glasper Trio‘s performance with Bilal from the next day.)

This brings us to July 9, 2011, when the Robert Glasper Experiment & Pete Rock threw it down again, this time at the North Sea Jazz Festival and with Roy Ayers receiving top billing. Here I present the full audio recording, 68 minutes long, mp3 format, sourced from the North Sea Jazz Festival web video stream: http://www.mediafire.com/?8fc9l3dsb4bxq3s. Also, part of the performance is available as a DVD download here.

Here is the full info to go along with that mp3:
Roy Ayers with Pete Rock & The Robert Glasper Experiment
July 9, 2011
Congo, Ahoy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands @ North Sea Jazz Festival
SBD > video webstream (unknown kbps) > Cool Edit Pro > WAV > MP3

01. unknown instrumental
Roy Ayers enters:
02. Everybody Loves The Sunshine
Pete Rock enters:
03. Don’t Stop The Feeling
04. We Live in Brooklyn, Baby
05. Pete Rock spins records
06. Don’t Stop The Feeling

Roy Ayers – vocals, vibraphone
Pete Rock – DJ
John Pressley – vocals & percussion
Raeford Gaskins – saxophone
Robert Glasper – piano
Derrick Hodge – bass
Chris Dave – drums
Casey Benjamin – saxophone & vocoder keytar

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