For years, Robert Glasper has been hip-hop's go-to jazzman. Along with saxophonists Kamasi Washington and Terrace Martin, and bassist Thundercat, Glasper was featured prominently on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly, which gives the pianist greater name recognition with hip-hop fans. On songs with rapper Black Milk and multi-instrumentalist Taylor McFerrin, Glasper played the background, yet you could easily distinguish him from the other sonic elements. As frontman of the Robert Glasper Experiment—his eclectic side band—Glasper takes on an aggressive, rock-infused edge, and his Black Radio albums for Blue Note won Grammy awards. He, bassist Derrick Hodge, drummer Mark Colenburg, and vocalist Casey Benjamin put compelling spins on the likes of J Dilla, Nirvana, and Radiohead (the Experiment's 13-minute rendition of "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box" is essential listening, for sure.)
However, if you're looking for the Experiment's raw electric outbursts, you won't find them on Covered. For this release, Glasper reverts to the jazz trio with which he recorded his first two Blue Note albums—2005's Canvas and 2007's In My Element. With bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid, Glasper recreates instrumentals from Black Radio and Black Radio 2, remixing tracks from occasional collaborators Musiq Soulchild ("So Beautiful") and Bilal ("Levels"). Much like his work with the Experiment, Glasper tackles all genres, though on Covered, the results are more straightforward than anything with his other band. The B**lack Radio albums were decidedly soulful, even if they drifted occasionally across genre lines. For Covered, "I wanted to do a nice happy medium, and do songs that I like, basically from my iPod," Glasper says on the LP's introduction.
Recorded live before an audience at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, Covered is driven entirely by piano, percussion, and bass. It's a no-frills record that recedes into the background without much fuss, which works for and against the album's overall impact. While Covered is technically jazz, the trio drifts into R&B while keeping a deliberate pace. This is light fare and, at times, it's easy to forget Covered is playing, which feels strange for a Glasper project. Aside from the playful "In Case You Forgot", in which Glasper interpolates a moment of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" before letting it crash into a heap to audience chuckles, there isn't a lot of energy here. Some of these arrangements are hampered by the overly meditative vibe, and the album feels tedious in certain spots. The trio covers Radiohead's "Reckoner" and John Legend's "Good Morning", but the versions feel flat without the original vocals and hew too closely to the studio recordings. In a way, Covered suffers because of the music that came before it: On both Black Radio editions, Glasper blended the roots of jazz with a sultry R&B ethos, effectively speaking to the Blue Note audience while reaching out to other demographics. Covered is a decent recording, but unless you attended its live taping and saw the band's interplay in person, it's tough to get invigorated by this.
Perhaps that's the point: Covered seems driven by the need for calm amidst societal chaos. The final song of Glasper's Black Radio 2 was a remake of Stevie Wonder's "Jesus Children of America", dedicated to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. Glasper makes similar reflections with Covered—on "Got Over", a brief interlude in which actor/activist Harry Belafonte ponders his journey as a black man in the United States, and on the album's final track, a remix of Kendrick Lamar's "I'm Dying of Thirst", which doubles as an extended roll call of minorities killed by police. It's a sobering end to a reflective record, and a conclusion that properly advocates for the importance of black life. As current events spiral out of control, even Glasper had to slow down for a moment.
