★★★★☆
(Blue Note Records)
Having spent the last five years or so behind the keyboards, the maverick Grammy-winner returns to the acoustic piano trio format with this live studio recording of covers. Unlikely songs by R&B/hip-hop greats such as Bilal, John Legend and Kendrick Lamar, with whom Glasper worked on the stellar To Pimp A Butterfly, are morphed into tunes that feel fresh, familiar and jazzy. Radiohead’s ‘Reckoner’ is stripped down and reclaimed; Joni Mitchell’s already subversive ‘Barrangrill’ gets a leftfield makeover. Jean Grae, Macy Gray and iconic singer/activist Harry Belafonte lend guest vocals, but it’s Glasper’s erstwhile collaborators, bass-man Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid, who really round things out. Throughout, Glasper’s one-take touches are bold and very often beautiful – check out his melodic take on Jhene Aiko’s The Worst.
