* En anglais uniquement
A quartet centered around jazz pianist
Robert Glasper,
the Robert Glasper Experiment originally featured bassist
Derrick Hodge, drummer
Chris Dave (from the pianist's acoustic trio), and
Casey Benjamin on saxes and vocoder. They made their debut on one half of
Glasper's two-disc
Double Booked for Blue Note in 2009. While the first half featured
Glasper's acoustic trio,
the Experiment contrasted on the other, incorporating elements of neo-soul, hip-hop, and jazz-funk into their sound.
The Experiment have also been open to working with vocalists. On their second CD -- and first stand-alone effort -- Black Radio, they worked with everyone from vocalists
Bilal,
Ledisi,
Erykah Badu, and
Lalah Hathaway to rappers
Mos Def,
Lupe Fiasco, and
Shafiq Husayn, to name a few. Black Radio was issued in February of 2012, also on Blue Note. In 2013,
the Robert Glasper Experiment (now including
Hodge and
Benjamin with drummer
Mark Colenburg) returned with their equally star-studded sophomore album,
Black Radio 2. The band toured constantly and globally over the next two years.
Glasper returned to his original acoustic piano trio format to cut 2015's Covered, recorded live at Capitol Studios, and guested on
Kendrick Lamar's celebrated
To Pimp a Butterfly. He also wrote original music for and curated the soundtrack for
Don Cheadle's 2016
Miles Davis biopic,
Miles Ahead.
The Robert Glasper Experiment returned to the studio in early 2016 with a different m.o. Instead of working on the pianist's music or covers, the quartet members wrote and arranged together in the studio for the first time. The resulting
ArtScience was issued in September after the pre-release singles "Day to Day" and "Thinkin' About You." ~ Matt Collar & Thom Jurek