It’s hard to find reviews of Robert Glasper’s work that don’t mention his comfort in a variety of genres and his ability to meld various influences. It’s understandable, and almost necessary, because it quickly gets to one of the reasons why Glasper’s such a compelling artist. His newest album, Double-Booked brings that idea to the fore, but not in entirely successful ways.
The album’s introduced by a loose concept: Glasper has booked two of his bands, the Robert Glasper Trio and the Robert Glasper Experiment, for shows on the same night. We then get half a disc from the one followed by half a disc from the other. It’s only a mildly intriguing concept to start with, but the end result tends more toward schizophrenia than to an indication of expansive influences.
The first half works a little better. It’s couched in more traditional jazz terms, maybe, but that doesn’t mean it’s a straightforward listener. The first piece (after Terence Blanchard’s introductory voicemail), “No Worries” allows for a fractured breakdown midway through the track. That it holds together before and after makes the concussive section more compelling. The following cut, “Yes I’m Country (And That’s Ok)” lets Glasper does what he does so well, melding styles and tempos into a piece that would be melodic and light enough for, say, Vince Guaraldi, but structured around more percussive sections and more unusual solo runs. The whole first half of Double-Booked, while keeping Glasper prominently, also serves as a showcase for drummer Chris Dave.
The second half of the disc, the stretch performed by the Robert Glasper Experiment, doesn’t work quite as well. Introduced by ?uestlove and containing appearances by Mos Def, Bilal, and turntablist Jahi Sundance, these six cuts suggest at a complex, genre-bending performance. Instead, it’s mostly just a lengthy space-out, complete with throwback vocoder. Partly it’s a letdown simply because the Trio’s work is so compelling, but it’s also just not as good as what we’ve come to expect from Glasper.
While it’s fun to hear the different styles juxtaposed, the material would have worked better more fleshed out, with each half turned into its own album with room to make a complete statement. Even more ambitiously, Glasper could have tried to merge the Hancockian fusion and the Trio’s stylings into a coherent sound, rather than tossing them up as competing aspects of his art. As it is, Double-Booked is still a strong disc, but it’s more a hint at what could be than it is a revelation of what is.
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