Recorded during their month-long residency at New York's Blue Note in 2018,
Live finds the all-star collective
R+R=Now further expanding their vibrant fusion of post-bop jazz, hip-hop, and R&B. Led by keyboardist
Robert Glasper,
R+R=Now also features trumpeter
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, saxophonist/synth-player/vocoder vocalist
Terrace Martin, keyboardist
Taylor McFerrin, bassist
Derrick Hodge, and drummer
Justin Tyson.
Live was captured the same year the group released their debut album,
Collagically Speaking, and features some of the same songs. Here we get atmospherically funky tracks like "Respond," "Been on My Mind," and "Needed You Still." We also get their Middle Eastern-tinged rendition of
Kendrick Lamar's "How Much a Dollar Cost." There's also a moody psychedelic track not included on
Collagically Speaking, "Perspectives/Postpartum," which combines compositions by
Adjuah and
McFerrin into a long, synthy, '80s-style fever dream. Many of
R+R=Now's songs have a circular, groove-oriented vibe that brings to mind icons of '70s fusion like
Herbie Hancock and
George Duke. It's a sound well-suited to extended soloing and the kind of live group jamming
Glasper and his bandmates are going for here. Some of these tracks, including the aforementioned "Perspectives/Postpartum" and the fiery 25-minute "Resting Warrior" benefit from this in-the-moment energy and evoke a wild combination of
Weather Report and
Stevie Wonder. Others, like the languid "Been on My Mind" with its yearning vocoder melodies from
Martin, feel like an alien quiet-storm ballad broadcasting from somewhere in space. Boldly contemporary, but informed by a deep love of vintage jazz-funk traditions,
Live perfectly capture's
R+R=Now's cosmic, genre-bending vibes. ~ Matt Collar