There is a certain hipness in title of
Double Booked that reflects the hipness of the music itself. It hints at two voicemail messages by
Terrence Blanchard and ?uestlove, respectively, that ask
Robert Glasper about apparently being double booked on the same night with two different bands at different clubs. The irony in that paradox is that
Glasper performs with his acoustic trio on the first half of the record, and with his Experiment on the second half.
Glasper’s trio is a crack unit with
Chris Dave on drums and bassist Vincente Archer. They understand where he’s at rhythmically and know how to knot things up and swing simultaneously. The expansive harmonics inherent in the album’s first two tracks -- the skittering flow on “No Worries” that takes its post-bop seriously with some amazing improvisation, and the more open, airy lyricism on “Yes I’m Country (And That’s OK)" -- are kind of opposite ends of the coin, but they're underscored and punctuated by an innovative reading of
Thelonious Monk’s “Think of One” to close the trio part of the record. The Experiment's half begins as
Mos Def raps over
Glasper's Rhodes piano and
Dave’s hip-hop drums. It expands from here with
Derrick Hodge’s funky electric bass, and saxophonist’s
Casey Benjamin's use of a vocoder over
Dave's breakbeats. The centerpiece is the ten-minute “Festival,” an ultra-modern, funky jazz tune with some complex improvisational navigation.
Glasper plays acoustic piano and Rhodes going head to head with that low-tuned funky bass and
Benjamin’s outward-bound sax and spacy vocoder.
Bilal joins the band on the last two cuts. He is as comfortable singing jazz and soul as he is hip-hop; he’s a kindred spirit for
Glasper. “All Matter” walks on the hip-hop side of jazz, and
Hodge's “Open Mind,” which makes use of
Jahi Sundance’s turntablism, is a midtempo ballad drenched in experimental jazz and nu-soul as
Dave practices frantic breaks inside the shimmering melodic structure. Another notable thing about
Double Booked is that it was recorded completely live in the studio. This is modern jazz that extends into popular music -- without compromise. ~ Thom Jurek