The brainchild of the trendsetting Robert Glasper, who is working to mix modern jazz with urban sounds, R&R NOW is a band (one-off?) that sounds like the musical goal of Miles Davis, combing warm trumpet with 21st Century R&B with a message reflecting the current age, or is it rage?
The title comes from an inspiration of Nina Simone, who’s thoughts on “Reflect” and “Respond” deeply touched Glasper enough to address social and political issues here.
The instrumental team of Glasper with Terrance Martin/synth-vocoder, Christian Scott/tp, Derrick Hodge/b, Taylor McFerrin/synth and Justin Tyson/dr is supplemented by actors/vocalists Terry Crews, Omari Hardwick, Amanda Seales, MCsStalley, yaslin day, Amber Nayran and Goapele. Musically, the songs are a thrilling and ambitious coalescence that at time features Scott’s fiery horn with tensile keys on “The Night in Question” or muted brass with silky voice and hip hop pulse on “Awake to You” gasping to female whips on “Been on My Mind.” Hodge’s bass like delivers a rich pulse along with wondrous piano thoughts under the vocoder on ”Colors in the Dark” while Tyson adds a hip groove on “Respond.”
As far as vocals, the delivery ranges from speeches to rants to rap to wonderful smooth and silky soul. The messages cover topics such as “systematic bigory” (does that include anti-Semitism, for which many of the urban leaders are guilty of?), the woman’s movement (any inclusion on systematic destruction of unborn females?) as well as love and love.
Musically, the album is a major step forward in using jazz to reach today’s youth through grooves and harmonies. Lyrically, any time a political or social point is brought up, it needs to be defended by more than words in order to not sound like a editorial from someone demanding “social justice.” Impressive reach!
Blue Note Records