Robert Glasper

Robert Glasper is a highly acclaimed American pianist, record producer, and songwriter who has made a significant mark on contemporary music through his distinctive blend of jazz, hip hop, R&B, and neo-soul, often described as a form of fusion jazz. His career, which began around 2003, features both acoustic jazz trio work and his electric band, the Robert Glasper Experiment. A pivotal moment in his career was the release of the album Black Radio in 2012, featuring a slew of guest vocalists from various genres, which helped blur the boundaries between jazz and more popular music forms, earning him a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. Glasper has continued this successful, genre-agnostic approach with subsequent releases in the Black Radio series and through high-profile collaborations with artists like Kendrick Lamar—playing keyboards on his celebrated album To Pimp a Butterfly—as well as Mac Miller, H.E.R., and Common, with whom he won an Emmy Award for the song “A Letter to the Free.” Throughout his work, which has earned him five Grammy Awards from eleven nominations, Glasper maintains a commitment to improvisational spirit and an intellectual approach to music while bringing jazz to a broader modern audience.