Robert Glasper is a musician I’d best describe as an open secret. The average listener would probably have no idea who he is, but those into jazz or music production would point to him as being a standout jazz musician of the 21st century. He’s worked with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Kendrick Lamar, so it makes sense that he has 5 Grammys! The crowning jewel of his works has to be his Black Radio albums, which are collaborative projects to celebrate jazz and R&B, as well as soul. While “Black Radio” (2012) and “Black Radio III” (2022) make up two of Glasper’s Grammys each for Best R&B Album, “Black Radio 2″ (2013) stands out as the middle child for only having a Grammy for a singular song and not the whole album:“Jesus Children” with Lalah Hathaway for Best Traditional R&B Performance. This to me is a shame because this one’s my favorite for sure, as it provides an experience not replicated by the rest of the trilogy.
While the themes of the Black Radio albums are not the selling points, they are the glue that holds the songs together in more ways than one. From the highs and lows of romantic relationships, as well as the resilience and disenfranchisement of people, they always match Glasper’s soulful approach to resonate with listeners on an emotional level.
When it comes to “Black Radio 2,” I think it does these themes the best out of the trilogy due to its consistency in both vocal performances and instrumental composition.
With the instrumentals, Glasper is able to deliver an album of deceptively fast songs that range from sorrowful to uplifting, all from a mellow mood. The prominence of Glasper’s piano and synths, as well as the percussions by Mark Colenburg sell the uncertainty of “What Are We Doing,” the grit found in “Persevere,” and the tenderness of “You’re My Everything.” With this mellow tone comes a seeming simplicity to the album, which, while irregular for Glasper’s discography, doesn’t skirt away from imbuing the songs with so much life. “Big Girl Body” is the crowning jewel in this regard, as it has a piano on an erratic time signature and fast tempo which eclipse every other instrument, yet is somehow still able to be dynamic when the song wants to focus elsewhere, then ending with an amazing saxophone solo by Casey Benjamin. Of course, the songs would not work as well without the stellar features.
When I said that the Black Radio albums were collaborative, I really meant that it had a LOT of special guests to provide the vocals. Brandy, Jazmine Sullivan, Common, and Snoop Dogg are a fraction of this album’s features, and they all fit their songs perfectly. While the album’s instrumentation can be on the simpler side for Glasper’s standards, that is because the vocals are the foundation these songs center around. This approach makes “Black Radio 2″ an inverse of the trilogy. Take Marsha Ambrosius’s chorus in “Trust,” which has the aforementioned mellow instruments work to emphasize her vocals, really making it a standout moment in the album for me.
While every Black Radio album contains some killer vocals and instrumentals, I think the one thing “Black Radio 2″ strays away from is experimentation, as while the compositions are wholly unique, the instruments themselves don’t change pitch or tone too much. If someone were to get distracted for too long, the songs could switch and they may not even realize! While this seems like a scathing critique, this change is what gives “Black Radio 2″ its consistency, as the other Black Radio albums have more peaks and valleys by comparison. Experimentation is a big facet of jazz, but the most infuriating part of the genre to me is finding that one song in an album that I love, only for that song to not be representative of the rest of the album.
Not here though, because Robert Glasper chose a captivating sound to capitalize on, making “Black Radio 2″ an album where I can’t decide what my favorite songs are! The beginning song “I Stand Alone” will never be dethroned as my number one, but “Let it Ride” and “Somebody Else” are ones I constantly juggle in my head for second place, it really is a close race in that regard. If you wanna know what I mean, dive in and give the album a listen!