Amplify: Keyboard Player Robert Glasper

Lara Downes is joined by keyboardist Robert Glasper for a conversation about music that is, to quote Duke Ellington, “beyond category.” They’re talking on location at the Blue Note, where he’s been a regular performer for almost 20 years. Although it has in its history performers like Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, they’ve embraced the evolution that’s been going on in the jazz world over the past several decades, and expanding their offerings to other genres. They touch on activism and optimism, and the role music and creative people can play in making the world a better place. Glasper says every record he makes “speaks to the times,” and wants a message in his music, whether overt or subtle.