Robert Glasper is a bit of a cult hero in the hip-hop, R & B and jazz worlds precisely because he moves so fluidly between the three. And his most recent release, Black Radio, has made his biggest splash yet, winning him new critical acclaim, and new fans.

This installment of our on-going Jazz in the Present Tense series opens with a stripped down version of the experiment doing a long, late night groove built around Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. The playing is mesmerizing, mixing bright piano with old-school sampling. As a mirror to that track, European Nu Jazz master pianist/composer Bugge Wesseltoft performs Dreaming > De Imaging, also producing a lyrical, trance inducing track upwards of twenty minutes in length. While he the music farther out into the realms of deconstruction, he shares the same bright, flashing piano sounds that mark Glasper’s work—there are moments when both remind me of Vince Guaraldi. Settle in for this one, and as always, enjoy.

Dan Alford

Dan Alford has been a contributor to Hidden Track since the site's first month of operation. He brightens the beginning of our week by sharing a Stormy Mondays mix from his huge music collection.

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