In My Element

"In jazz, there is always much talk about the "new", but the music rarely feels new. After all, the obvious barriers to greater freedom were all broken down decades ago. And "new" fusions with other kinds of music long ago stopped seeming particularly new - or particularly fruitful. If an artist is working in the venerable form of the acoustic piano trio, well - "new" seems largely out of the question - unless you are Robert Glasper. '

In My Element' is the young pianist's second trio disc for Blue Note, and it is stunningly new. Working again with his acoustic trio - Vicente Archer on bass and Damion Reid on drums - Glasper succeeds inorganically incorporating the rhythmic innovation of hip-hop into a jazz aesthetic. In his piano lines, and in the essential groove of the trio, Glasper has found a way to use the stuttering cadence of hip-hop to surprising, elegant effect. This innovation, achieved wholly without awkwardness and without trotting out the surface elements of hip-hop-no rapping, no digital effects, no guest producing from Kanye West - makes In My Element one of the key releases of 2007. The record is a masterful achievement and, with it, Robert Glasper jumps to the front of the pack as a pianist not just of promise, but of singular vision."
- Will Layman, PopMatters