David Chappelle, Common, Bradley Cooper, Sasha Baron Cohen, and Q-tip all got on stage with Glasper one night. Basketball players would go to see him.”ĭuring his last week at The Blue Note, Glasper had many big-ticket guests himself. “Back in the day,” he says, “Miles was friends with all them muthafuckas: comedians like Richard Pryor, musicians like Jimi Hendrix. Though he wouldn’t say it’s intentional, Glasper is upheaving conventions in jazz: He’s making it cool again.
I mean literally standing on tables, recording. “Ye got up and started walking to the stage, and people lost their shit,” says Glasper. I believe we have two MCs.’ Mos gets up and walks to the stage, and everyone’s like ‘Oh shit! That’s Def!’” Then, from the back of the club, a voice barks: “I believe we have two. “And Lupe was like, ‘I believe we have two MCs in the house. I’m bringing someone.’” During the second set of the night, “We played this one joint, ‘Dumb It Down,’ by Lupe,” Glasper says. During the break between sets, Glasper says, “Mos Def called and was like, ‘Yo, you at the Blue Note? Imma follow through. The year was 2011, and Glasper was playing with Chicago rapper, Lupe Fiasco. “One time I had people standing on tables here,” he regales. To him, that-rather than plastic sofa slips-is what the spirit of jazz should be. Fuck that person behind you that’s like, ‘ I can’t see.’ Get the fuck up too!” If it were up to Glasper, he would take every table out of the club and have people on their feet, dancing. Other times, that sentiment is forgotten and a quintessentially hip-hop attitude takes over he’s the first person to tell people, “Yo, stand up if you feel it. And it’s like: okay, but I’m still visiting mom.” And when you’re going to your parent’s house, sometimes they have plastic on their couch, and you can’t do certain things because it’s your parent’s crib. “It’s like you’re going to your parent’s house. He, at times, approaches it with an air of respectful familiarity. In terms of Glasper’s music, The Blue Note can be seen as a proxy for jazz itself. You know, this is the kid, so it’s really hip-hop’s crib.” And hey, let’s play the music of its son, here. “I feel that jazz is the mother of hip-hop. “It’s just the way it is,” he says.īut at the same time: “I feel that it’s dope that The Blue Note is allowing me to bring these things into the jazz club,” he says. You can’t fit many people in.” Patrons are eating dinner waiters are scurrying around with drink orders. “This space won’t allow you to move too much. Even if the audience wants to get up and dance, they can’t. The Blue Note is a sit-down club, and hip-hop is stand-up music. Throughout the month, his sets featured guests like Brooklyn rapper, Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), and Detroit’s own T3 of Slum Village.īringing hip hop into a jazz club made him feel ambivalent it’s unconventional and fun, but it’s also a bit incongruous. He nodded to the musical legacy of the club, but he also made a point to turn away from it. Some nights during his tenure he played straight-ahead jazz others, hip hop. He’s just coming off a 56-show residency last month at the iconic jazz club, The Blue Note. “Jazz is boring as fuck right now,” says three-time Grammy award–winning jazz and hip-hop pianist, Robert Glasper. The jazz renegade pays tribute to J-Dilla with a guide to the producer's 5 most revolutionary hits.
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