Early life Glasper's earliest musical influence was his mother, Kim Yvette Glasper, who sang jazz and blues professionally. She took her son with her to club dates rather than leave him with babysitters. She was the music director at the East Wind Baptist Church, where Glasper first performed in public. He performed during services at three churches:
Baptist,
Catholic, and
Seventh-day Adventist. Glasper has said that he first developed his sound in church, where he learned his own way to hear
harmony and was inspired to mix church and gospel harmonies with jazz harmonies. Glasper attended Elkins High School in Missouri City, Texas, and the
High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. In tenth grade he performed with the jazz band at
Texas Southern University. He was in the second Vail Jazz Workshop in 1997, and went on to attend the
New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City. At the New School, Glasper met neo-soul singer
Bilal. They began performing and recording together, which led to associations with a variety of hip-hop and R&B artists parallel to Glasper's emerging jazz career. According to Glasper, he became interested in hip-hop after listening to
A Tribe Called Quest.
Career Glasper's playing career was launched in earnest whilst still studying at
The New School in New York when he started touring as a sideman with some of the established greats of the scene (bassist
Christian McBride, and trumpeters
Terence Blanchard and
Roy Hargrove). At the same time, Robert was forging a friendship with his New School-mate
Bilal, as well as a musical bond that saw them embedded in a burgeoning hip-hop and
neo soul movement alongside era-defining artists such as
Jill Scott,
The Roots, and
J Dilla—during which time Glasper became music director for
Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def). Glasper released his first album,
Mood, in 2002 on the
Fresh Sound New Talent label.
Mood features six original compositions alongside versions of the
jazz standards including
Herbie Hancock's "
Maiden Voyage". Primarily a piano trio recording, with Bob Hurst on bass and
Damion Reid on drums, the album also features saxophonists
Marcus Strickland and John Ellis, along with the vocalist
Bilal. Around this time, Glasper recorded with Bilal at
Electric Lady Studios for the singer's unreleased but widely leaked second album,
Love for Sale. In 2005, Glasper released his debut on
Blue Note Records,
Canvas, with what was to become his quintessential piano trio lineup of
Vicente Archer on bass and
Damion Reid on drums. The album features nine original compositions alongside a
cover of Herbie Hancock's "Riot". His third album,
In My Element, was released in 2007 and includes songs written in honor of Glasper's mother ("Tribute") and hip-hop producer
J Dilla ("J Dillalude"). The pianist also revisits Hancock's "
Maiden Voyage" in what was becoming his signature fusion style, moving between contemporary and classic as it segues into a version of Radiohead's "
Everything in Its Right Place", and quoting
Duke Ellington's "Fleurette Africaine". Glasper's 2009 album,
Double-Booked, is divided between songs performed by Glasper in an acoustic piano trio format, and his groundbreaking electric group, The Experiment, with
Derrick Hodge,
Casey Benjamin, and
Chris Dave. The album features guest vocals and spoken-word appearances by Bilal and
Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def). The track "All Matter", which featured Bilal, received a 2010
Grammy Award nomination for Best Urban/Alternative Performance. In February 2012, Glasper released his fifth and seminal album
Black Radio, which featured performances by a lineup of neo-soul and hip-hop artists including
Lupe Fiasco,
Bilal,
Lalah Hathaway,
Erykah Badu, and
Yasiin Bey.
Black Radio was met with both commercial success (a No. 10 debut on
Billboards Top Current Albums chart) and critical acclaim, with
Rolling Stone declaring that it "feels like a blueprint forward", and went on to win the 2013
Grammy for best R&B album. In 2012 a concert at the
Village Vanguard was recorded on video and published on YouTube. In November 2012,
Black Radio Recovered: The Remix EP was released with five remixed tracks from the prior album, including remixes by
Questlove,
Solange,
Georgia Muldrow,
Pete Rock, and
9th Wonder. In October 2013, Glasper released
Black Radio 2. The core remained the Robert Glasper Experiment, featuring Robert Glasper on keyboards,
Derrick Hodge on bass,
Mark Colenburg on drums, and
Casey Benjamin on vocoder and saxophone. Guest vocalists included
Common,
Brandy,
Jill Scott,
Marsha Ambrosius,
Anthony Hamilton,
Faith Evans,
Norah Jones,
Snoop Dogg,
Lupe Fiasco, and
Emeli Sandé. Notably,
Lalah Hathaway and
Malcolm-Jamal Warner were featured on a cover of
Stevie Wonder's "Jesus Children of America", a dedication to the victims of the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. The track would go on to win the
Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance in 2015, whilst the album was nominated for Best R&B album. On June 16, 2015, Robert Glasper released
Covered, a return to his acoustic piano trio format alongside musicians
Damion Reid and
Vicente Archer. The album features cover songs, drawn from an eclectic variety of artists, including
Radiohead,
John Legend,
Kendrick Lamar, and
Joni Mitchell. The album was recorded live at
Capitol Studios in 2014.
Covered was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. 2015 saw Glasper and
Lauryn Hill co-produce
Nina Revisited... A Tribute to Nina Simone, an all-star tribute album pegged to the release of
Liz Garbus's documentary
What Happened, Miss Simone? The album features artists bringing a contemporary reimagining of
Nina Simone's catalogue including contributions from
Usher,
Common, and
Mary J. Blige. In 2015, Glasper served as
producer,
composer, and
arranger for the film
Miles Ahead, a
biopic documenting the life of jazz trumpeter
Miles Davis, whom Glasper cites as being one of his major musical influences. The soundtrack primarily consists of arrangements and interpretations of some of Davis's most well-known compositions, with the exception of a few tunes written by Glasper himself, and won him the 2017
Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media. In 2016, Glasper was able to pay further tribute to Miles Davis, releasing ''Everything's Beautiful
on May 27, 2016, his first with Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. The album serves as a tribute to Davis by way of remixes and reinterpretations of several of his original works. The album debuted in the top ten Billboard Hip Hop and R&B charts, the highest Miles Davis charted according to Rolling Stone''. Although Davis died in 1991, he is credited as a co-artist of the album. The album includes features from
Stevie Wonder,
Bilal,
Illa J,
Erykah Badu,
Phonte,
Hiatus Kaiyote,
Laura Mvula,
Georgia Anne Muldrow,
Ledisi, and
John Scofield. September 16, 2016 marked Glasper's return to his electric group, the Robert Glasper Experiment, with the release of
ArtScience: the first Experiment LP where all members write and produce, and the first with no guest vocalists, although Glasper himself sings on the album. It features saxophonist and vocalist
Casey Benjamin, bassist
Derrick Hodge and drummer
Mark Colenburg alongside Glasper, and was recorded in New Orleans. Glasper would go on to release a remix version of the album in collaboration with
Kaytranada in 2018 entitled
Robert Glasper x Kaytranada: The ArtScience Remixes. 2016 saw Glasper receive attention for his prominent role on
Kendrick Lamar's critically acclaimed album
To Pimp a Butterfly, notably playing on the Grammy-winning track "
These Walls". In October 2016, Glasper co-hosted the inaugural Blue Note Cruise alongside
Gregory Porter. The cruise became an annual event and Robert co-hosts it each year with bassist
Marcus Miller. In January 2017, Glasper performed with
Christina Aguilera at Taking the Stage, the celebratory concert commemorating the opening of the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. It was hosted by Dave Chappelle and featured a plethora of other icons of black music and culture including Stevie Wonder, Mary J. Blige, Chuck D, and others. The concert was made into a feature-length program and broadcast on ABC in June 2020. In February 2017, Glasper partnered with Afropunk as Creative and Musical Director for their special Unapologetically Black show, performed at the
Apollo Theater. A celebration of African American protest music, the show featured
Jill Scott,
Bilal,
Staceyann Chin, and
Toshi Reagon alongside a special big band ensemble led by Glasper. On September 29, 2017 Glasper released
Our Point of View with the Blue Note All Stars band, for which he brought together other leading figures of his generation for a special project celebrating the legacy and future of Blue Note Records. The record featured each artist's original compositions as well as a jam session, recorded live in the studio, where the band were joined by Glasper's heroes and jazz icons
Herbie Hancock and
Wayne Shorter.
Don Was co-produced the album with Glasper and footage of the recording session features on Sophi Huber's 2019 documentary,
Blue Note Records: Behind the Notes. In September 2017, Glasper appeared on a live stream with
Esperanza Spalding while recording "Heaven in Pennies" for Spalding's album
Exposure, which was released in December 2017. In 2018 Glasper formed two new supergroups: R+R=Now with
Terrace Martin,
Derrick Hodge,
Taylor McFerrin,
Christian Scott, and
Justin Tyson; and
August Greene with
Common and
Karriem Riggins accompanied by Burniss Travis and Samora Pinderhughes. R+R=Now stands for Reflect+Respond=Now, a nod to
Nina Simone's statement that "An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times" and a reference to the current political climate. R+R=Now's debut album,
Collagically Speaking, was released on June 15, 2018. August Greene was formed by Glasper, Common, and Riggins after Glasper and Riggins jointly produced Common's
Black America album, which included the Emmy-winning track "
Letter to the Free", which featured on
Ava DuVernay's documentary
13th. The group had previously performed together for a special edition of the
Tiny Desk Concerts concert series at the
White House in 2016, the only one done in the location. August Greene released their self-titled debut album on February 21, 2018. In October 2018, Glasper launched the first of what would become his annual month-long residencies at the
Blue Note Jazz Club. In 2018, Glasper appeared on
The Potash Twins series 'Beats + Bites' (
Bravo TV) along with
Wynton Marsalis,
Smino &
Tom Colicchio. Each year, in the course of playing 56 sold-out shows across 30 days, Glasper curates a unique program—testimony to the breadth of his portfolio, vision and bandmates—and draws the great and the good of his creative community to the shows on and off stage. Projects have included a tribute to
Stevie Wonder with
Luke James, a band with
Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and a trio with
Esperanza Spalding. Guests have ranged from
Common,
Black Thought,
Yebba and
Q-Tip to
Angela Davis and
Ilyasah Shabazz,
Dave Chappelle and
Tiffany Haddish, many of whom have made unscripted appearances performing with Glasper as well as watching the show. In the summer of 2019 Glasper was Artist in Residence at the
North Sea Jazz Festival, curating and performing over the weekend with a series of special bands and projects across the festival's stages. In September 2019, Glasper was Artist in Residence at the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He commemorated the opening of their new building with a two-week series of events and outreach. On October 3, 2019, Glasper released the mixtape
Fuck Yo Feelings, his first recording with
Loma Vista Recordings, on the first day of his 56-show 2019 residency at the
Blue Note Jazz Club.
Fuck Yo Feelings is the result of a two-day session in which Glasper texted invitations to his musician friends to stop by the studio and organically create together. Featured artists, who included
Herbie Hancock,
Cordae, Buddy,
Andra Day,
Yebba,
Baby Rose and
Rapsody, often composed their contributions on the spot. The album's name mirrors a tattoo that Glasper got a week before recording. In 2019, Glasper appeared in Toni Thai Sterrett's "Potty Break" web series as an R&B artist named "The Hawk". Glasper closed out 2019 by composing the original music for the documentary
The Apollo, which tells the story of the
Harlem venue of the same name. Glasper co-wrote and performed the film's end credit song "Don't Turn Back Now" alongside
Ledisi. In 2020, Glasper continued his work on the big screen by writing the score for the film
The Photograph. Released on February 14, 2020, the film was directed by
Stella Meghie and stars
Issa Rae and
Lakeith Stanfield. On June 25, 2020, Robert Glasper,
Kamasi Washington,
Terrace Martin, and
9th Wonder announced the formation of a supergroup,
Dinner Party. They released a single, "Freeze Tag", followed by their self-titled debut album on July 10, 2020. In March 2020 March Glasper performed at the March On Washington with
Derrick Hodge and
George Clinton. On August 27 2020, Glasper released "Better Than I Imagined", the first single from his forthcoming
Black Radio 3 album. It features
H.E.R. and
Meshell Ndegeocello. In August 2020, Glasper contributed to the
live streamed recording of the singer
Bilal's EP
Voyage-19, created remotely during the
COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. It was released the following month with proceeds from its sales going to participating musicians in financial hardship from the pandemic. In September 2020, Glasper collaborated with
Common to write and perform the ending theme song for the educational
Netflix show
Bookmarks, in which Black celebrities and artists read children's books by Black authors to spark meaningful conversations about empathy, equality, justice, self-love, and anti-racism. Presented by
Marley Dias, the show features readings by
Lupita Nyong'o,
Jill Scott,
Misty Copeland,
Karamo Brown and more. On January 14, 2022, Glasper announced on his Instagram page that on February 25 he would be releasing the third installment in his
Black Radio series, entitled
Black Radio III. For the 2026 Grammy Awards, he received a nomination for the album
Keys To The City Volume One in the Best Alternative Jazz Album category. ==Musical style==