It’s Friday in Philly, and Robert Glasper is preparing for his last show stateside, before a trip to Japan.
On stage at The Union Transfer, Jahi Sundance is on the ones and twos, warming up the crowd as he plays a varied mix that touches everything from modern Caribbean dancehall to 80s pop, to Bob Marley and the Wailers. The crowd bounces and dances through the mix, content to settle into the weekend.
In the audience is a range of ages, cultures and aesthetics: women with split-dyed hair, men with locs and couples in athleisure attire.
Glasper doesn’t tour like other artists; he often does one or two-week residencies in major cities across the country, favoring Southern California and the East Coast. He holds a special place in his heart for Philadelphia, however, he has booked at least one date here every year, the last few years at City Winery.
As DJ Jahi Sundance closes out his set, Robert Glasper takes the stage with his bass player, Burniss Travis and drummer, Mark Colenburg. Our headliner takes time to intro his players, including Sundance, who remains. There are a few seconds of banter between the musicians, then the lights turn down and Glasper’s quartet takes off.
At first, the group jams freeform, with Glasper’s piano and Colenburg’s drums debating the song’s pace and structure. The heated conversation between instruments comes to a climax as the drums kick into a driving beat, bringing the jam to a close.
Glasper puts a toothpick in his mouth, then holds it between his index finger and middle finger, pulling on it like a cigarette. He banters with the crowd before riffing on another jam, a loose cover of The Shining (Pt. 2) by J Dilla. He alters the hook’s lyrics to align with a modern political view, then leads the crowd in a chant.
“It’s plain to see, you can’t change me. Fuck ICE.”
Glasper shouts out J Dilla, who passed away 20 years ago, and has been a frequent subject of instrumental tributes from our headliner.
Then it’s another jam, this one a conversation the bass player gets in on. The question of musical key, in addition to rhythm, is a subject of contention. Then, all at once, the band settles into a groove so deep as to carve into the earth’s mantle.
Moments later, the band settles into another melody, only this isn’t one to bounce to; it’s slow with a melancholy tinge. Glasper, whose voice is more than capable of holding down his songs, sings.
“I’m not complaining, I’m just tired. Yesiree. Wouldn’t you agree?”
DJ Jahi Sundance, who to this point has been content to let his skills sit in the periphery of the soundscape, drops a sample of a deep-voiced man repeating the same phrase every few seconds.
“He called out for his mother.”
Emotion runs over the audience, eyes fill with water, and a few look to their left and right to see if others are experiencing what they are. The texture of the room and the performance have slid into something wholly unlike what they started as. As the music slowly swells, a sample from a Dave Chappelle’s 8:46 performance during the 2020 George Floyd Protests surfaces over the instruments.
“He called for his mother. He called for his dead mother. I’ve only seen that once before in my life. My father, on his deathbed, called for his grandmother.”
There are punctuations of cheers and claps as the words echo. We’re mostly frozen, rooted to the floor, choking back tears as we remember that summer, now almost six years ago. Glasper isn’t performing anymore; he’s using music to engage us, to force recollection about what that moment meant to us as individuals and as a nation.
More spoken-word samples break through the music like bricks through glass, and then Glasper sings again.
“I’m going home to find you.”
He plays both of his keyboards at once, ripping through a crescendo from his track Find You, a deep cut from his 2016 record. The audience is stunned but jubilant at this major-key reprieve. Whether Robert is going home or somewhere else, we are all following him.
Then, after our emotions have been thrown to and fro, Robert again banters with crowd members. Someone at the front of the crowd wants to hear Robert spit. “You want to hear these bars?!” he shouts incredulously into the mic. “Nah, you don’t want that.”
Robert’s band defies his wishes and sketches out an eight-bar hip hop beat as he tries to move on from the challenge. Our five-time-Grammy-Award-Winning, multi-instrumentalist, virtuoso band leader, then pretends to have difficulty finding the right entry point in a four-four time signature after checking the mic a few times. He calls his tour manager from backstage as the band continues to dare him to rap on the beat, and they have a brief conversation.
Robert gives the band the signal to stop and then announces, “Sorry y’all, my manager just told me that the ticket price would have to be higher for me to rap. I know, I know. Not all freestyles are actually free.”
To make it up to us, Robert then debuts a new song, which is actually just him pretending he doesn’t know how to play the piano for 45 seconds while the band feigns being impressed.
In the span of ten minutes, we’ve transitioned from one of the most deeply affecting, harrowing and melancholic performances this writer has ever seen to a comedy sketch akin to something Victor Borge would do.
Then, after tiring us out in the early rounds, Robert Glasper starts throwing hooks. The band cuts into a cover of Lady by D’Angelo and offers their tribute to the artist who has inspired so many. The instrumentalists start to jam over vocals by Thundercat, then Sade, then A Tribe Called Quest, then Fela Kuti, then Busta Rhymes, Wu-Tang and others. The crowd sings along to familiar verses in new instrumental contexts; it’s like an inverted karaoke.
Robert ends the show talking about what Philadelphia means to him, and how he would visit various clubs with his friend and fellow Grammy Award-Winner Bilal in the 90s. He shares his love and departs, leaving the stage with no room for an encore. Later in the week, he’ll be in Tokyo, but, in all likelihood, he’ll be back in Philly before 2027 ends.
Listen to Robert Glasper’s latest album,Keys To The City Volume One on Spotify and follow him on Instagram@robertglasper.