Live Review: Robert Glasper - Koko, London 18/11/2024
Jazz legend Robert Glasper had the crowd in the palm of his very dexterous hand at Monday night's sonic ‘sermon’ at Koko in Camden.
Famed for his blend of traditional jazz and hip hop licks (he famously quoted “Jazz is literally in the beginning bones of hip-hop”), the maestro reaffirmed his title of King of the jazz fusion world during an hour-and-a-half live set of jams of his most coveted songs. Most of the night’s big hitters came from 2012’s Grammy-winning album Black Radio, including Afro Blue, featuring neo-soul’s first lady Erykah Badu, and Cherish the Day featuring Lalah Hathaway.
The deliciously seductive Lift Over, where jazzy piano runs mimic spunky hop-hop inspired riffs, had the 1,500- people-strong crowd in a trance. Glasper earned his stripes as a traditional jazz pianist before dabbling in fusion-genres, helping to contribute to his 5 Grammy wins and 12 nominations (and counting). This tour sees Glasper fully embracing his extraordinary range and experimentation, with DJ Jahi Sundance on hand to finesse his endeavours.
Glasper’s other players for the evening included Curtis Travis on the bass and Justin Tyson on drums. Each musician brought their own unique flavour to the show, spinning out to perform some wild magic on their own, or switching up the tempo to develop the track further, before pinging back to a unified performance. Seeing musicians very clearly enter their flow state live on stage was a really special experience - with a jam-session gig like this you’re literally seeing them work out the path to something exciting. Time seemed to stand still at one point as drummer Justin Tyson performed a mind-blowing drum beat, shredding every preconception I had about rhythm and beats.
In the middle of the show Glasper belts out ‘RIP Dilla’ to the crowd, to an appreciative applause, before smoothly moving into his track with the Robert Glasper Experiment, "Dillalude #2" sampling Slum Village's "The Look of Love". Other homages to notably late artists come in the form of Black Radio’s Nirvana cover Smells Like Teen Spirit. Showing off his playful side, at one point the visuals to Glasper’s viral dancing IG filter took over the backdrop screen to the soundtrack of a jungly and bassy beat. He also joked about how the show was its own sermon, despite it being a Monday. His blend of musical genius and playful humour were like gold dust to the audience, who were wildly cheering and whooping whenever a track ended, prompting Glasper to joke: ‘sounds like we’ve got some fucking roosters in here.’
Towards the end of evening he performed a track spouting the wisdom that everyone has a natural gift, but that if it isn’t properly protected it’s changed by the world, before posing the gut punch of a question: “Would you rather be at war with yourself and at peace with the world, or at peace with yourself and at war with the world?” Mr Glasper we’ll take the latter and we are eternally grateful you protected your gift to share it so joyfully with the world.
Words by Monique Hall
