Robert Glasper Shares His Vision Of The Black Radio Experience, Bringing The Vibes To Napa Valley & More

For all of his musical accomplishments, Robert Glasper stands as one of the most versatile yet accessible musicians of his generation. In a recent chat, the Grammy Award-winning pianist and composer shared with Hip-Hop Wired his vision of The Black Radio Experience and bringing the soulful vibes to Napa Valley for Labor Day Weekend.

Robert Glasper has over a dozen releases that span the audio expanses of Jazz, Soul, R&B, Funk, and Hip-Hop. By way of the world-famous Blue Note record label, Glasper released Black Radio in 2012 and it was true to his interpretation of what a Black radio station under his watchful direction. The initial concept led to a Black Radio trilogy that concluded in 2022, and he’s still reinventing himself as an artist by way of his latest project, Let Go.

Anyone who has ever attended a Robert Glasper show learns swiftly that he is, without doubt, a masterful yet playful showman whose dexterity as a pianist allows him to open his musical sandbox to a wide tapestry of sounds. In our talk with Glasper, we asked him what The Black Radio Experience means to him and how he intends to bring those ideas to life in the Wine Country of Northern California.

“The Black Radio Experience, just like you hear on my albums, it’s just that vibe and you can see the festival will feature artists that have appeared on the Black Radio albums like Common, Jill Scott, Ledisi, Terrace Martin, Derrick Hodge,” Glasper explains.

“It’s not about having the hottest song out or anything but a collection of artists that make songs that bring those good feelings out. These are artists who promote real music, love, honesty, and all of that from a Black and soulful perspective. That’s what The Black Radio Experience is and always will be,” Glasper added.

Glasper shared that while the theme of the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Napa has maintained that creed for the past three years, this year’s festival widens the scope with a focus on Black wine brands, chefs bringing curated menu concepts to light, and making the festival a safe space for celebration of the wide scope of Black creativity that includes the arts and dance as well.

“The festival is just an extension of the love I have for the music and the people and what I set out to do on the first Black Radio album, which is to say this is what Black radio stations could be,” Glasper said.

“When I made that first album, I was already immersed in different styles of music and playing it but committing it to wax was the next step, and over the years with the festival, we’ve been able to bring my vision of Black Radio to the stages and show that there is so much to us as a creative people,” Glasper shared.

Among the headliners for The Blue Note Jazz Festival Presents: The Black Radio Experience, which includes the aforementioned acts from the albums, is André 3000. Three Stacks has famously moved on from the rapping portion of his career and leaning into instrumental music by way of his latest album, New Blue Sun. Glasper says that he found the Atlanta artist’s choice to try something new inspirational and that was his thought in creating his latest body of work, Let Go.

“I had so many people tell me that they listened to New Blue Sun and mediated to it or cleaned their house to it, hell, even I did the same,” Glasper said. “I had people tell me that they would do the same to some of my music and that was the reason why I partnered with Apple Music to drop Let Go. I wanted to give listeners something to reset their day to and even to inspire myself to take it slow.”

Robert Glasper will be in Napa, Calif. this Labor Day Weekend for The Blue Note Jazz Festival Presents: The Black Radio Experience.

To learn more about the festival, click here.

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Photo: Marc Fong/Blue Note Jazz Festival

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