Hip hop's new mother lode mines a rich vein of jazz

One of the most anticipated hip hop album releases for years, Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’, is intrinsically linked to contemporary jazz and soul performers. 

The album was given a surprise release surrounded by much hype and confusion ahead of it’s scheduled release on March 23rd. Lamar, who hails from Compton in South Central LA, has made himself a solid reputation for his fresh, searching and ‘real’ approach to hip hop story telling in a music form sadly dominated by fairly uninspiring and bland dance music influences.

Nine of the cuts on the new Lamar album feature Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist Robert Glasper who is no stranger to hip hop. Both volumes of Glasper’s ‘Black Radio’ project draw on well established hip hop disciplines and top stars like Common, Lupe Fiasco, Mos Def and Snoop Dogg.

Glasper happened to be in LA at the end of last year to record his new trio album ‘Covered’ and was invited over to play on a Kendrick Lamar song by established hip hop producer Terrace Martin, son of a jazz drummer. Glasper played on ’For Fee’, a wild two minutes of jazz swing laced with hip hop freestyle, but his playing eventually extended to several more of the album’s sixteen songs. 

“I went over there, and it was so funny because on my record I’m not doing any straight-ahead jazz. You know, not swinging. But then the first thing I do when I walk into this hip-hop session is like straight-up, straight-ahead jazz. So that’s the ironic thing,” Glasper explained.

His approach to the project was seeing Lamar in the context of a saxophonist rather than an MC. "So it was dope when he said “Hey, do this", and I was like, “Wow. That’s something I would’ve done anyways if you were a saxophone player!" Glasper said. "This was the first time Lamar was seeing me sit down at the piano and play. So then, once I played that song, he was like: “Oh, snap! This is dope.”

Saxophonist Kamasi Washington, from Inglewood in Los Angeles, who has played with jazz greats Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Harvey Mason features on several songs including ‘u’, Lamar’s introspective journey into a world of angry let downs, personal insecurities and depression. Kamasi is about to release his own immense 3 CD album ‘The Epic’ with mind boggling mammoth productions of extended choral and instrumental pieces throughout.

Grammy Award-winning vocalist Lalah Hathaway also makes a cameo appearance singing the intro to an aggressive cut called ‘The Blacker The Berry’, inspired by the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, as well as through the dicing and sampling of her 2008 song ‘On Your Own’ weaving an atmospheric soundscape behind hard hitting lyrics on the song ‘Momma’.

Singer Bilal, who has been a part of Robert Glasper’s jazz and r&b recordings, is also featured on backing vocals. Bilal is a regular backing singer for Kendrick Lamar.

Also featured are bass player Thundercat, P-Funk legend George Clinton and legendary soul singer Ronald Isley.