WATCH: Robert Glasper’s “Message to the Jazz Police”

Grammy-winning pianist and composer Robert Glasper has hit out at the ‘Jazz Police’ in a fiery message posted on his Instagram page. He says he’s exasperated with too much light being focussed on the historical jazz players, and not enough on the young musical innovators of today. “You’re gonna kill the music if you only support people who are dead” he says, “you’ve got to start supporting younger music, it’s very very important. The tradition of jazz is that it always changes, it keeps moving and it never stays the same”.

Glasper says “young people have always carried that torch”, pointing out that innovators like Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock were in their early twenties when they first became household names, "and we need that support now to keep it moving because it puts jazz on a bigger pedestal and makes us part of a bigger conversation.”

The video is available to watch below.

Robert has just announced a UK concert date: a collaboration with hip-hop star Mos Def at London's Troxy on Thursday 8 March.

> Message to the jazz police..I have been fighting this fight for years.... > > A post shared by Robert Glasper (@robertglasper) on Feb 15, 2018 at 5:09pm PST