Gig review: Robert Glasper Experiment, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow

By DAVID POLLOCK
Published on 30/06/2012 02:44

SHORN of the array of stars who have helped earn him Grammy-nomination acclaim in America, prodigious pianist and jazz composer Robert Glasper was compelled here to fall back on more traditional styles.

Past collaborations may have paired him with Mos Def, Norah Jones and A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip, earning him a reputation as the missing link between jazz and hip hop, but it was very much the jazz musician who played before us here.

Performing as part of a quartet including a drummer, a bassist and Casey Benjamin on saxophone – and what appeared to be a keytar creating what sounded like an otherworldly vocal distortion effect similar to a vocoder – Glasper played a set that was like an alien transmission, a spectral ripple of crisply-played contemporary jazz whose optimum time to be heard is under cover of darkness. Blending smoothly from a flickering, Gene Krupa-like extended drum solo, through a laidback but funky break from just the rhythm section, to Glasper’s dazzling solo minutes on the piano, this was night music played with a nod to contemporary urban styles.

It was also the kind of experience that required full immersion to get the best out of. So where Benjamin’s robot voice began crooning Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit towards the end would have awoken many from their reverie.

It was an unusual context in which to find oneself listening to the song but not an unpleasant one, merely an updated reflection of jazz’s tradition of continually adapting and reinterpreting standards. In an encore of Michael Jackson’s I Can’t Help It, however, the quartet couldn’t help but infuse their playing with a hint of dense, irresistible funk.

Rating: ****