Artist On My Mind: The Robert Glasper Experiment

I consider myself a recovering music-Nazi, i.e. I once used to frown upon most types of mainstream music and complained constantly about the deficit of genuine beats and good song-writing "these days". Yup, I was one of those people. Looking back, I think that was unfortunate, because they are many incredibly talented and skillfull contemporary musicians. You just have to keep an open mind (or rather an open ear) in order to come across them.

Every now and then, you come across music that just rocks your world. If you enjoy classic jazz piano infused with elements of 90s grunge, early millenium R'n'B, West African Drums, then I am 100% certain that you will LOVE The Robert Glasper Experiment. In fact, so confident am I in the prowess of this band, that  I challenge anyone who hears The Robert Glasper Experiment to remain unmoved. They will rock your socks. On their newest album Black Radio, they collaborate with a number amazing artists (Erykah Badu and Lalah Hathaway to name a couple).

They group was started by jazz pianist an hip hop producer Robert Glasper. Dude is amaze-balls!

While Mr. Glasper himself is awesome, my favourite band member is the gentleman below. His name is Casey Benjamin, he has an amazing style and he sings the vocals on my favourite of their songs,, their cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Let me not lie, I have a bit of a crush on this guy (Oh, that rhymed!).

Did I mention that he is multi-instrumentalist? And he has a kick-ass beard! Swoon.

As mentioned,  my fave songs by them is their cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", with Casey Benjamin on vocals.

Isn't that awesome? I also love their cover of Mongo Santamaria and Abbey Lincoln's "Afro Blue" with Erykah Badu on vocals.

 Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Images c/o Google