Á

ROBERT GLASPER
‘SO WHY THE HELL
AM I GOING TO
SOUND LIKE THEM?’
By Phillip Lutz | Photos by Jimmy & Dena Katz
FOR THE BETTER PART OF A YEAR, Robert Glasper has been shuttling
between his Brooklyn digs and Herbie Hancock’s home in Los Angeles. There,
the two pianists—joined by saxophonist-keyboardist-producer Terrace
Martin and a rotating cast of artists schooled in theory and steeped in
the musical vernacular—have been holding a series of jams.
Held in a studio stacked with keyboards, the jams are deliberately
yielding material for Hancock’s next album. In the
process, they are transforming the studio into a laboratory
for the continuing merger of jazz and hip-hop culture—
fueling a drive to bring jazz to a younger generation of
listeners.
“All the elements have been marinating,” said
Hancock, whose contributions to the broadening
of the jazz audience include his
hard-bop hit “Watermelon Man”
(1962), the electrified jazz-funk
album Head Hunters (1973) and
the music video for “Rockit”
(1983). “The elements were
bubbling beneath the surface.
Now they’re exploding.”
26 DOWNBEAT FEBRUARY 2017