Blue Note Records Signs Pianist Robert Glasper

Blue Note Records has signed pianist Robert Glasper, marking the label’s first new Jazz artist signing in five years, and reaffirming their 66-year tradition of moving the music forward, a notable occurrence in a Jazz industry that has otherwise seen the major labels reduce the number of instrumentalists on their Jazz rosters, or dissolve those rosters altogether. Glasper will be entering the studio in May to record his major label debut, which will likely be released this Fall.

(L-R) Perry Greenfield (Product Manager, Blue Note Records), Bruce Lundvall (CEO & President, EMI Jazz & Classics), Robert Glasper, Tom Evered (VP & General Manager, EMI Jazz & Classics), Eli Wolf (Director of A&R, Blue Note Records)

“I feel that Robert Glasper has an emerging originality as both a pianist and a composer,” says Blue Note’s CEO & President, Bruce Lundvall. “He has his own voice, and is one of most exciting younger musicians I’ve heard in some time.” Glasper adds “I’m honored to become part of the Blue Note family and their rich musical history.”

Glasper, 26, was raised in Houston, TX. His mother, who played piano and sang Gospel and Blues, imparted her musical influence early on, and Glasper was soon accompanying her on piano in church, as well as in the Jazz and Blues clubs around town. After attending the Houston High School for the Performing Arts, he moved to New York City to study at the New School University. Since moving to New York, Glasper has become an important member of the Jazz, R&B and Hip-hop communities, working with such musicians as Terence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton, Carmen Lundy, Q-Tip, Bilal, Mos Def, and Me’shell Ndegeocello.

In a July 2004 concert review in The New York Times, jazz critic Ben Ratliff wrote that “[Glasper's] trio deserves comparison with the best of the newer piano trios, those led by Jason Moran, Bill Charlap and Brad Mehldau...his group has its own crisp, skittering cooperation, with hip-hop in its bounce. There was a daredevil aspect to the set as well, giving it urgency. He stretched each piece of music from the start, without losing the audience's concentration.”

At Blue Note, Glasper will not only be joining a rich Jazz legacy that stretches back to 1939 and covers a jaw-dropping piano lineage beginning with Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis, and continuing through Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, and Cecil Taylor. He will also be joining an incredibly diverse current roster that includes fellow pianists Jason Moran and Bill Charlap, recent Blue Note jazz signees such as trumpeters Terence Blanchard and Wynton Marsalis, longtime Blue Note family members Joe Lovano and Greg Osby, premiere jazz vocalists Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Patricia Barber and Kurt Elling, and pop artists as well, from new stars such as Amos Lee and Norah Jones to legends like Al Green.