Pianist Robert Glasper is like a son of jazz maverick Miles Davis. As such he is the perfect person to construct a tribute album to his soulmate. Glasper has built a career, like his idol did before him, upon not giving a fig to what is expected of him or paying attention to the “rules” of the music industry. He has brought R&B and jazz together in is music. On this reimagined Miles Davis material he has gathered like-minded friends such as Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, Laura Mvula and Jon Scofield to help him on this tribute album. Reading the extensive line notes, written by Robert Glasper, you can see the blood, sweat and tears that he poured into the making of the album. Because he was and is so dedicated to the cause of making a Miles Davis tribute album Columbia Records gave him total access to the man’s catalogue. The result is him taking on some lesser known Davis tracks and reworking them to fit into the modern jazz world. As such you get some interesting intermingling of hip hop, bossa nova and electronica with jazz. A highlight of the tracks found here is “I’m Leaving You” with a great sampling of Davis himself. Listening to the album as a whole you realize that though it has been many years since his death that the Dark Prince of Jazz, Miles Davis, still exerts plenty of influence on modern artists.
Robert Glasper/Miles Davis – Everything’s Beautiful
