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A fellow piano player, songwriter and Texan, this episode with Robert Glasper was meant to be! Norah and Robert reminisce about their days at Performing Arts High Schools and band camp, and recollect all the alums that have inspired them from the start. They perform a stunning Radiohead cover, a recorded collaboration they’ve never played live together before, and a meditative composition by Duke Ellington. Get caught up in the walk down memory lane, and find out the advice they both got from their friend, Q-Tip! Recorded on 2/7/2023.
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Hi, I'm Nora Jones, and today I'm re-loving Playing Along with Robert Glasper.
I'm just playing along with you. I'm just playing along with you.
Since this episode first aired in 2023, Robert's kept busy with new music and collaborations, including What You Bring In, the latest album from Dinner Party with Terrence Martin, Kamasi Washington, and 9th Wonder. He's also in the middle of his annual Rob Tober residency at New York's Blue Note with upcoming shows featuring his OG acoustic piano trio, Questlove, M. Bilal, Wyclef Jean, Kem, Derek Hodge, and Chris Dave. Head to bluenotejazz.com and get your tickets now. Hi, welcome to the show.
I'm Nora Jones, and with me as always, hi, Sarah Oda. It's me, Sarah Oda. Hi, Sarah.
Hi.
Hi. Oh, this.
Hi.
This episode makes us both sigh at the same time.
This was so much fun. Also, this episode we recorded as part of a trip to L.A. we went on together.
And it was definitely a highlight of our trip.
It was such a highlight. And also, it was such a fun trip and crazy. And now I'm having memories of our trip, just thinking about this episode and that day. After we were done with this episode with Robert, we went and had dinner. And we were just like... We stuffed our face with pasta. We were so happy. We were high. We were kind of high on happiness. On podcasts and pasta. Yeah, basically.
Basically.
Our guest today is a pianist, songwriter, producer, composer, arranger.
Extraordinaire.
All around incredibly talented human, Robert Glasper.
Yay.
He is also quite a special personality. Yes.
He's very uplifting. Like just listening to him talk, I feel.
He makes me happy.
Yes.
Just being around him and his energy is beautiful.
It's contagious.
He's a.
He's one of those good humans that, you know, you just are happy to be around.
Yes.
He walks in the room and everybody's just feeling a little bit better, a lot a bit better.
A lot better. He's so kind. And we start off this episode talking about it, and we'll talk about it a lot, I think. But I actually met Robert for the first time when I was 15 years old in Denton, Texas, at Jazz Camp. Jazz summer camp.
Jazz camp.
Good old band camp.
What happens at jazz camp is spoken about in a podcast.
I do have a story like that, but not for the podcast. But yeah, it was so awesome thinking about knowing Robert at that time. And we were just babies, you know, and it's just so sweet. And we've actually, you know, seen each other over the years. We've recorded... a song together. I've sat in with him a couple of times at shows, but we've never gotten to sit down and hang like this. So this was such a special thing for me.
This episode felt like a high school reunion in a bottle. Just hearing all the names of people that you both grew up with and were inspired by people who were just a couple of years older than you, but you looked up to. I feel like maybe really set the foundation for the path that you ended up being on and even though you both you and Robert had different paths you crossed paths and you know kind of connected in different ways it's it's so fun to hear like the journey that he's been on since then.
He's incredible his journey has been incredible.
I mean I feel like this episode was like just longing to happen you know and then when he started playing music it felt like you could just play a hundred songs and not run out you know.
Yeah I wish I wish we had more time And I hope you enjoy. Please go see Robert Glasper play wherever he is playing. You will love the show. Hope you enjoy the episode with Robert Glasper. I'm excited.
Oh, yeah.
Look at us.
We're here.
We are here.
Am I on? Oh, we're on.
Oh, we're on.
It's only taken us how many years to actually play music together together?
Together in the same room?
Yeah.
You remember when I first saw you? I don't know if you remember. Because, okay, for those of you who don't know, we met at jazz camp. I don't know where I'm looking.
Oh, you don't have to look anywhere. Yeah.
So we met at jazz camp. We were both in like 11th grade or something.
Yeah.
I think we were 15 or 16.
Yeah, 15 or 16 at jazz camp at Denville, Texas.
Denton, Texas. Denton, Texas.
UNT.
Denton, Texas. UNT. University of North Texas. That's right.
That's right.
At a jazz camp. After that jazz camp, the next time I saw you was at the new school.
Uh-huh.
You were in a practice room practicing.
I've heard you tell this story.
And she was just playing. And I walked by and I was like, Nora? Because I hadn't seen you at that point in probably like three years or something, four years.
Yeah.
Like, Nora, what are you doing here? And you're like, oh, my friend let me in the practice room so I could probably work on the demo. And then after that day, next time I saw you was on the Grammys, holding all the Grammys. I was like, you went from I'm working on the demo to all these Grammys. And I was like, oh, my God, that's crazy. And then after that, I remember each time I saw you. After that. I did this thing with The Roots at Radio City Music Hall.
Oh, I was there, yeah.
And me and you were both sitting on the side of Questlove. This is when he was really big. We sat there for an hour, probably didn't see each other. Because I was on the right side of him, you were on the left side of him. And we both reached for like ice or some chips. That's literally what happened.
We were both like.
Oh, shit, Lord.
It was crazy. And Amir was in the middle like, oh, snap.
That's so funny.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. But, man, good times. And congratulations on so many things.
And congratulations. You just won a Grammy. I just won a Grammy. Was that yesterday or the day before?
The day before yesterday.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I was there in the audience. I watched you go up. I was so stoked. You were like, my pants just fell down.
I literally, the morning of, I realized that my pants, I lost weight. I didn't realize I lost weight, but apparently I lost weight.
It was an old tux.
It was an old tux, and so I lost weight, and I didn't try it on until the morning of the thing. I was like, I'll be fine.
Yeah.
And I was like, oh, snap. So we put, like, safety pins, and it was fine. I was like, okay, cool, and I wore my shirt out anyway. I was kind of being chill, like, You know, I had cool sneakers and a cool shirt. You know, whatever. As soon as they called my name, I was like, oh, snap. And I jumped up. And I think when I jumped, the safety pins just gave out. And I started running down the aisle. I felt my pants falling down. I was like, oh, snap.
I'm going to hold my pants up. So I literally, the whole time, after one of the Grammys did the speech and everything, the whole night at the Grammys, I had to walk with my hand in my pocket.
Just to hold him up?
Just to hold him up.
Oh, my God.
I was just walking like this.
You're, like, way too cool for everybody.
Way too cool.
Somebody wanted to give me that, but I was like, hmm.
That's too funny.
It was in my pocket.
Sorry. Your pants will fall down. Did you at least have good-looking underwear on?
I did. I think I did.
I think I did, yeah.
Okay, good.
Just in case, but it was interesting.
It was so exciting, though.
Yeah.
I was so happy. It's so sweet to me to know you from that age.
Yeah.
And to see you go up there and accept an award.
Yeah.
And to see your show the other night.
Yeah.
It was just so great. Oh, but to have you perform with us was so dope. It was fun.
I mean, I was so stoked. I don't know if I felt very awkward because I... Sometimes I don't know what to do with my hands when I'm not playing. I'm just not used to it anymore. You know what I mean?
Exactly.
Yeah, but.
No, I totally get it.
God, I love hearing you play with Chris and Derek. Chris Daddy Dave.
Chris Dave and Derek Hodge.
Holy crap. Derek Hodge.
They're literally my band is my favorite musicians.
It's so great.
Like, hands down.
It's such a great feeling to feel like that with people. How long have you played with him? Are they from Houston?
No. Well, Chris is from Houston.
He is?
Yeah, he went to my high school, high school for performing arts.
Okay.
But he went, like, he graduated, like.
He's a little older?
A little older. I think he graduated in 92. Okay. And I graduated in 97.
Yeah, we're the same age.
We're the same age, yeah. So we went to, so you went to Booker T, right?
I went to the performing arts in Dallas. Yeah, Booker T.
So I have a lot of friends that went there.
I feel like we're like parallel sister schools.
Literally.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Because you had Erica.
Yeah. Roy Hargrove.
Yeah. I went to school with Beyonce.
Wait, she went there?
Yeah.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
She went to Beyonce. Yeah. Her ninth, her freshman year. I was a senior. She was a freshman.
I actually did not know that.
Destiny's Child, the next year, Destiny's Child did the Super Bowl and they never came back.
Holy crap, yeah, exactly. They homeschooled after that.
They homeschooled after that.
Yeah, well, I knew she was from Houston, but I had no idea she went to the performing, oh, of course she did.
Beyonce's like literally my little sister. I remember Solange come up to the school, she was small, running, give me a hug, like that was like little sis.
That's so sweet.
So seeing, it's crazy, like from high school, you and Beyonce, like it's crazy, you know what I mean? Like it's crazy to see so many friends like, blow all the way up in the world like.
Yeah well it's the same thing when I'm watching you and it's like I'm so proud and I just remember being at that jazz camp and being like one of two girls or something and it's like all the dudes and you know feeling like a dork you know everybody was nice but like I don't feel like we've ever sat in a room and talked without a bunch of people around yeah it's crazy absolutely yeah it's really.
Special yeah yeah definitely Texas! Hey, man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Dang.
It's really special. I'm so happy you did this.
Did you know Roy, too?
I only met him once.
Really?
Yeah, he was older, you know, so. he wasn't there when I got to the school. Gotcha. I only got to meet him once.
One time, yeah.
Yeah, but I used to, like, I was obsessed with this record of his in high school, and I learned a lot from listening, of course.
I mean, he's the person, when people ask me, he's one of my biggest influences because he came to my high school to do a clinic.
Ah, okay.
And that was my first time seeing a young jazz band, all black, wearing stuff I was wearing. They were wearing jeans.
Yeah, they weren't like wearing suits.
No, they weren't suits. That's the first time I saw it and I was like, oh, I can be that. Because it looked like me.
That's so cool.
Most of the time, jazz musicians, like I remember I used to go to, I used to play with Wynton when I was in college. And we used to go to schools and play. And I would always wear like my own dress and Wynton and then we'd wear the suits. Like how do y'all know me? But after the show, you know, all the kids would run and make a line to talk to me.
Because of your clothes.
Because I look like them. You know what I mean? I put the two and two together too. Like, oh man, that makes sense because you look, you want to be what you see.
That's really interesting.
What looks familiar, like it's a reachable goal.
You know what I mean?
Like, and it's like, oh, that makes sense. If I look like it's reachable to you, like Roy did to me, I was like, oh man, I could do that. I could play jazz and still wear sneakers and jeans. I didn't know that. You know?
That's so cool.
You know, so that, He really inspired me with that. And then he took me on my first world tour. That's amazing. With RH Factor, his band RH Factor. Oh, man.
I wish I could have seen that show.
It was so amazing. I was a freshman in high school, in college? College. Yeah, freshman in college.
At New School?
At New School.
In New York?
Yeah, he took me on a world tour. And the first show was in Houston.
Oh, my God.
My mom, God bless her soul, my mom walked up to the front of the stage while Roy is playing and said, give my baby a solo.
Are you serious?
Swear to God. The whole band saw it. Everybody died laughing.
That is so sweet.
Even Roy, he was like, hey, you heard your mama? It was a song I don't even solo on. I was like, mom, what are you doing?
During the song?
During the song. Oh, during the song.
The first song.
Absolutely. No, but that was my mom, though. That was her.
Oh, that's very sweet. Did you grow up in church?
I grew up in church, yep. I grew up, my first time playing in church, it was a small church, and if it was somebody's birthday or birthday month, the preacher would let me come up and play happy birthday on the piano. And I learned that with literally one finger, happy birthday at 11.
That's crazy.
And then throughout the years, because my mother was administering music at the church.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah, she was the choir director and everything. But during the week, she sang in clubs and did like duo piano, piano voice, jazz standard stuff.
She sang in clubs doing jazz?
Yeah, jazz and Top 40 and Broadway. She loved Liza Minnelli.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
I know more Broadway things than I should. As a black man, it's weird.
It's kind of surprising, yeah.
No, for sure.
Yeah. So, yeah. So there's like all kinds of music, you know, coming up. But I learned how to play literally. They had like a broke organ in the corner. So when my mom was conducting the service, I was just learning on that organ in the corner.
Yeah.
You know, and then I just got good just by that.
That's so cool.
Yeah.
That's, I feel like that's. Similar to so many musicians I know growing up and being at that school in Dallas.
Absolutely.
Yeah, playing in church. I learned to sing in church, actually.
Yeah, really? Yeah.
Oh, nice.
But, you know, it was more Latin kind of hymns and stuff.
Gotcha. Was it Catholic?
No, it wasn't.
Okay.
But the choir director used to be Catholic.
Oh, okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Gotcha.
Because I played in Catholic church, too.
You did?
So on Saturdays, I played for a seven-day Adventist church. On Sunday early morning, I played at a Catholic church.
Oh, wow.
And on Sunday— At 11 o'clock, I played at a Baptist church.
That's the best practice.
So for the last two years of my life, I played at three different churches three days a week.
That's amazing.
And all those churches had choir rehearsal during the week. So I was in church all the time.
But that's such a great gig, too.
Yeah, absolutely. And I was balling out of control. I had that dough, that church dough.
It does pay well, those church gigs. I know a lot of people that have those.
No, church gigs play extremely well now, especially now that it's cool to be a touring musician and still have your church gig. And now the pastors and stuff, they're like, yeah, my music director's on tour.
Yeah, they're cool letting you sub it out.
Yeah, before, I did it too early. Like, I started when I got to New York from Houston. My pastor in Houston knew a pastor in Harlem. So I had a church gig immediately. And so when I started playing there, everything was fine. But six months in, I started my friend Bilal.
Yeah.
Singer Bilal. We met at college. And we started working on his album. And then like a year later, he started touring. And I was going on tour. And with him and like Christian McBride, I was on tour with.
Wow.
And Roy.
And Roy.
And Roy.
Right. And back then it wasn't cool yet. It wasn't totally cool yet. They were like, you got to make a decision. You got to be here or go on tour. And I was like, well, I love you, God, but.
I love you, God, but I'm going on tour.
I got to be out.
Oh, man.
Yeah, but now, like, that's the thing. Everybody holds on to their church gear, sub it out until they get home.
Yeah.
Because it's big money there.
Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to try a song?
Sure.
Do you want to try that one since it's fresh? Or do you want to start with, like, Let It Ride or something?
Whatever you want to do. Yeah.
It doesn't matter. I don't know.
We'll try Sisters Fresh?
Yeah.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Well, so you did this on a live, sort of a live covers album?
Yeah, so I did it at the Capitol Building.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I did it. And so what I did was I had a bunch of couches brought into the studio, and I made it like a little club.
That's so cool.
And I had a full bar and I had a bartender. So I made the studio like a club. I got that from Cannon Bar Adderley. Oh, yeah. He did that. He did that in the studio?
Yeah, in the studio.
Ah, yeah, yeah.
So a lot of live albums you hear, some of those, especially back then, they were actually in the studio because you want the live element, but you don't want the sound of the live element.
The crappy sound, yeah.
So you get the best of both worlds by just doing it in the studio.
That's a really good idea.
Yeah, so I had people come, invite only, at couches and like, you know, like I said, a full bar, boom, boom, boom. And we just played Two sets a night, like a show, like a gig.
Man.
So I did two sets, boom, boom. And then the next day I did two more sets. And then I just chose the best from each, you know, boom. And that was the record.
Yeah.
You know? So it was live at Capitol.
It's great.
Yeah. And we did The Reckoner, one of my favorite Radiohead tunes.
Yeah, this is from In Rainbows, right?
Is it from Rainbows? Yes, In Rainbows. And I haven't played this since we recorded it.
And I've never done it.
She's never done it. So this is going to be fun.
Let's see what happens. God, this is a good song.
Oh, man.
It's so good.
And I can read the lyrics now.
Absolutely. I've never known the lyrics.
Yeah, it's hard to understand sometimes.
I've given up on any lyric that James Brown, D'Angelo, Tom York. You can go down the list. I don't know what y'all are saying, but y'all are amazing. But I've never known anything you've ever said.
But then when you actually read it and they're good, it's like, wow.
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. It's a whole other thing on top.
Now my heart's beating fast.
You know what would be really dope?
What?
I'm going to try to maybe keep a beat.
Ooh, what?
You know what I'm saying? Mouth beats.
I like it.
You know what I mean?
The whole time?
Yeah.
I don't know about the whole time. But for the beginning. Because in the middle of it, it kind of breaks up. It does a thing.
Yeah.
But then when it goes back.
I'm excited.
You know what I mean?
You know what I was thinking when I was listening to this?
Yeah.
I would love to hear a gospel choir sing this.
Oh, absolutely.
Oh, my gosh. Well, it's got all those choral parts, but then to have just the vibe a little different.
Yeah, that would be dope, absolutely.
It's so beautiful.
Absolutely.
Do you want to do headphones?
I don't know if my breathing's going to work for that. I might pass out. I just did it for 10 seconds just now.
That sounded like, well, that sounded like, let's not do it then.
It's a lot of breathing, yeah, let me stop.
But we have it, you know.
Okay, we got it, we got it, for sure, for sure.
So so.
You can't take it with you Dancing for love.
Your pleasure.
Oh.
You are love to blame for Bittersweet distraction.
Oh, and I speak His name.
Oh, dedicated.
To love.
Because we separate.
Like ripples on a blade.
Ooh, because we separate.
Like ripples on a blank ocean.
Dedicated to all you, all you men be.
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Yes!
I mean, it was kind of cool.
It was cool. I messed up once or twice, but it doesn't matter. The vibe was there.
I loved it.
The vibe was there.
The vibe was there.
I love that.
Absolutely.
I love hearing you play.
I love it. It feels so good.
It does. It feels good. I feel like we're family.
We are, though.
We kind of are.
We just haven't spent time together. We never spend time together. We're like cousins. We're like cousins. We are.
Yeah, we're like cousins who are buds. Yeah, your show the other night, I felt that real sense of family. Also, just everyone there, too. Your whole crew is like a family.
I don't do good with assholes.
I know.
I like nice people.
You're good. You've cultivated this beautiful community.
Yeah. And I mean, we're in a business where you run across people who just aren't cool. But you have to deal with them.
Yes.
Those are the people you didn't see. They were in another section.
I did not see those people.
I still put them on the list, but they can only make it so far.
Yeah.
I loved it. I got to meet so many people, too, that felt like family. I met Layla Hathaway.
You've never met Layla before?
No, I've never met her before. And she felt like family.
Absolutely. 1,000%.
I mean, it's crazy.
Absolutely.
It's just so nice.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, and you introduced me to Jaleel White, which was fantastic.
Pretty freaking awesome. Yeah. Urkel came to mind. I had Urkel and I had Theo Huxtable.
Yes, you did. It was amazing.
In the backstage.
Our generation was just dying inside.
Oh, my God. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Yeah.
It was so sweet.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
It's cool. Your show is cool because you do a lot of different things.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I didn't realize you sang so much.
I just started.
Because you didn't sing last time I saw you.
No, no, no, no.
Oh, so that's a new thing.
This is new because what happened was. Last year, I was on tour, and my vocalist at the time, Fur, my boy Fur, he got strep throat. It was the last week. The last end of the tour, I was at the Blue Note. We had a week, and he got strep throat in the middle of the week.
Oh, no.
And so he was done. And I was like, man, we were doing black radio songs. I was like, man, I got to try to sing one of these songs.
Oh, yeah.
You know, I was like, people know I'm not a singer, so they're not going to take me too seriously. It's just for the vibe. So that's how I started. I was like, let me try one. And it worked out that night. I was like, maybe the next time I'll try it too.
That's cool.
Yeah, so then I just started kind of doing it more and more because I figured the more I just get used to it, the better I'll get. You know, and I have like pedal stuff and stuff from tuning and stuff. I'm still trying to figure that configuration out, what works best. But the more I do it, the better, I think. You know what I mean? Just for something different.
Yeah, you have a cool effect on your voice.
Yeah, I put that on there and try to, you know. make it interesting at some point, because I'm not a singer, so you don't want to hear my tone.
No, but you're not not a singer. I mean, you sounded... You grew up singing.
Yeah.
In church, I mean.
I just want to sound decent for the vibes. That's it. Decent in vibes.
It's great. And you get them out. Well, I thought you sounded great.
Thank you.
It was really fun.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I was like, oh, crap. Should I have him sing something? If you want to sing something, go for it. Oh, hell no.
I don't have my pedals.
I need my autotune.
My autotune. Yeah.
Oh, you use that.
Yeah. You got to have a little autotune thing I do. And yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Actually, no, let's go back.
Okay.
You wrote that song I sang with Q-Tip.
Oh, yes.
Life is Better?
Life is Better, yes.
Did you know I actually didn't know that?
Right.
Until recently.
Until recently.
Yeah.
Yeah, so Q-Tip was working on his album, The Renaissance. And I was there in the studio a lot doing some of the joints and blah, blah, blah. And then I was like... sitting there trying out something, trying out a keyboard. I might have been getting sounds or something. And I started playing what became Life is Better. He was like, what's that? And I was like, I don't know.
He's like, keep going, keep going.
That's great.
So then we kind of cultivated it, made it a thing, and I had to leave town the next morning. And me and him were sitting around. He was like, oh, what should we do with this? And I was like, you should get a singer to sing a hook on it. And I was like, Nora Jones.
You said it?
I said it.
Aw, thank you.
I said it. I was like, I can hear Nora on this. That would be dope. He's like, oh, yeah, Nora. That's my kid tip voice.
That's your kid tip impression.
So he's like, oh, yeah, that would be dope. Then I got on the plane, and I think I went on tour or something.
Yeah, you weren't there.
I wasn't there. Then he hit me like, yeah, Nora came through and killed it. I was like, oh, snap.
Oh, that's so great.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. That's such a dope joint. The joint is so cool, man.
It's so good.
It's really dumb, right?
It's funny because I went in and I hadn't met him before.
Oh, really?
No.
Yeah.
And I was excited. I was a little nervous.
Yeah.
But also I was kind of. In those days, I was super oblivious. Like, I was almost too oblivious to be nervous a lot. And he had me sing this part, and he's like, but it was kind of high for me. And I remember I said to him, I was like, ah, it's a little high. I don't know, can I? He's like, no, it sounds great. Just do it. I was like, it was a really good lesson, and don't pretend like you can't do something until you go for it. Actually, and it kind of made me learn that I could sing high.
It was weird.
Awesome.
Yeah. He made me play organ. On, not that song, but the You song, I don't play organ. I'm not an organ player. That's a different instrument. It is. It's a whole different instrument.
My husband's a good organ player.
See?
He learned playing in a church.
There you go.
Yeah.
Exactly. I learned playing at church, but it was a broke organ, a cheap, small one, so it's not even the real one.
It didn't take.
It didn't take at all. Yeah. So that song, You, is the first recording of me playing an organ on any record. Oh, cool. On a real record. I told him I didn't want to. I said, I know organists. Let me call organists. My boy. I know Corey Henry. Let me call him. I know guys that are great. He was like, no, you can do it. Just do it.
That's exactly what happened to me.
That's why I brought it up because I was like, he made me. He literally was like, you can do it. Just do it. You can play an organ. Just play it.
That's why he's such a great producer.
Exactly.
He saw our limitations, what we thought were limitations. Let us know it's not a limitation.
But that's the best.
Absolutely. So I was like, okay. So I played an organ on that song. I was like, oh, I did do it.
That is so cool. Want to do this Q-tip song?
Sure.
What are these chords?
I know.
I had to relearn them today.
Yeah, because I've always been like, what is this?
Because that happens to me. I'm so much like that. I do sound checks or something, and they'll be like, what's that? And I'm like, I don't know. And they'll record it and loop it, and I never play it again. And then I don't know what it is.
But it's so nice. Your hands just go to a shape, right?
Yeah.
So I think the vibe is more like.
So.
I think it's like G major, B minor, passing chord to C major, to C sharp minor nine.
Yeah.
That's what I'm getting with the vibe.
Is, But it's fluid.
Yeah.
Days filled with gray But now the color comes in Leaves fall away Hip-hop is playing again And it's banging too.
Gonna bang it for you.
Don't stop this feeling I feel.
I just want to run around all day.
And feel the breeze fulfill my needs.
I'm so into your rich history.
Tell me stories and take me away.
Come and take me.
Come and take me.
You life is better now that now that i found you life is better now that now that i found you life is better now that now that.
I found you life.
Is better now that now that i found you life is better Now that, now that I've found you, life is better.
Now that, now that I've found you, life is better.
Life is better. Life is better. Since I've found.
You, life is better.
Life is better.
Now that I found you, I feel better.
Since I found you.
Now that I found you, I feel better.
Ooh Ooh.
Oh, yes.
I love that song.
It's a good song.
It's a great song.
And his verses are.
They're great.
It's so relevant because now it's the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, too.
Yeah, it was funny watching the other night at the Grammys, watching that whole thing.
It was so amazing.
It was awesome.
It was amazing. And Q-Tip shouted out a lot of those guys that were on the stage. He shouted out so many rappers in that song.
I kept waiting for him to come out.
I know, right? He ain't going nowhere.
Yeah, I was hoping he would be there. But yeah, he does. That song is like, I love all of that, that he did that.
Yeah, absolutely. It's really thoughtful.
It is.
You have to really... you know, take your time and really figure that out because the history of hip-hop is a lot of people. Yeah. And you can't leave out this person. You can't have that person without this person. You can't have that person, you know.
Yeah, it's tricky.
Very tricky. It's a slippery slope.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. That's so funny. I haven't played that song since I recorded it.
Me neither.
Me neither.
I never got to play it with him.
Didn't y'all do a video, too?
We did a video.
That's right.
Actually, that's one of my favorite videos I've ever done.
Yeah, I did a video.
I remember I got there, and I think I was really uptight with the director, and I think I was kind of nuts. I wasn't like a bitch, but I think I was just like nervous and uptight and I was worried about how I looked. And I didn't know that they were going to blow it out like that. And it looks so cool. Like my makeup didn't matter because they made it black and white in this cool way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he was late. And I was like, where is he?
Yeah.
And then we had so much fun. We shot it in like 20 minutes.
Really?
Yeah. It was like very quick. Yeah, but we never got to sing it together.
Yeah. I did a video with Q-Tip for a song called Getting Up on that same album.
Oh, yeah.
But that's why I took my eyebrow ring out. I had an eyebrow ring. And when you watch the Getting Up video, I'm the first thing you see. It comes on, there's my face right here, and it pans out. And I'm playing piano. But it was like a time period kind of vibe. So my eyebrow ring, it didn't fit the vibe. They told me to take it out.
And?
I couldn't put it back in afterwards.
You could never get it back in?
I could never get it back in.
So he owes you a piercing, basically.
I'm kind of glad. Because, you know, I had it too long. It needed to be out anyway.
It was a little dated as it was.
It was dated as it was. Exactly. For sure.
You had long hair then. You had long dreads.
Yes, I had dreads.
Yeah.
And when I did, I played Art Tatum. In this Aretha Franklin documentary.
Oh, cool.
On National Geographic's Genius.
Okay.
They did these things on different artists, and they did one for Aretha Franklin. So this is one Cynthia Erivo did. She played Aretha, and I played Art Tatum.
Got to take that earring out.
Got to take my earring out. Guess what? Couldn't put it back in.
Well, there you go.
So therefore, I have no earrings now.
And now you don't have all that. You don't need all that stuff to be cool. I don't need all of it.
Yeah, I don't need all of it.
You just need pants that fit.
I need pants that fit.
Yeah.
Yeah. I need to at least try on what I'm going to wear before the big thing.
Before you do it.
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah. It was so funny. Like, I literally was walking around holding up my pants. It was amazing.
Was that the first time you'd played with him, or you'd done a bunch of stuff with him before?
No, I've been going over to Q-Tip's house before that record came out for, like, seven years. Okay. Because he loves to... He just loves creating. So I would go over there and replay samples for stuff that he's producing. Like replay the actual samples from the records. And then we would come up with new stuff. And I've been on tour with him a few times. You know what I mean? So that's been my guy. I've been dealing with Tip since probably like 99 because he knew Bilal.
And because of Bilal, I was always around him with Bilal. You know what I mean? And then me and him got cool because of that situation.
Okay.
Bilal was my intro.
He was your gateway?
He was my gateway to the whole, like, neo-soul movement that happened in, like, 97. He was my gateway because he was a part of that whole thing. And everybody wanted Bilal to sing on stuff.
Yeah.
He's from Philadelphia.
He's so cool.
And he's so cool and dope. And I was the friend that was always— we were best friends. We were always together, you know?
Yeah.
And so— That's kind of how everybody knew who I was.
I was wondering, actually. I was like, how did you end up from jazz camp to the new school? That's still not a gateway to this whole community.
Yeah, but it was that. It was I moved to New York during the neo-soul movement. The Roots were doing all these jam sessions in New York.
Yeah.
They had these legendary jam sessions every week in New York, and there was a legendary jam session in Philly at the spot called the Black Lily, which is literally where the The neo-soul movement pretty much was birthed this club. They would do something like, I think, every Tuesday. And that's where, like, Bilal used to take me on the bus.
We'd take a Greyhound bus to Philly.
Oh, my gosh.
And go to that jam session. Because that's when I saw Jasmine Selfish. She was, like, 14.
Really?
In the club.
Wow.
So I saw Jasmine and Questlove and James Poyser.
Oh, James. I know James.
James, my guy.
Wait, is he also? No, he's from Philly. He's from Philly.
He's a backbone to that whole. James Poyser. like the backbone to that whole Neo Soul movement.
Yeah, I didn't realize how much he produced and wrote.
Wrote.
You know, his style of playing, I copped a lot from James' playing. You know what I mean? A lot of people don't even realize that.
Me too.
He played on one of my records and I cop it all the time.
Yeah, man, he came with a style that didn't precede him. Like, no one plays like James. You know, now they do.
Yeah.
But he has a certain style that just, it was his own.
Yeah.
You kind of have to play like that to play this genre. That soul genre, you have to play like James to make it work. And so that became a part of my style because Bilal was trying to show me how to do it. And he was like, you got to play like this, but it's not that, but it's this. And I was like, what are you talking about?
Can you show me what you're talking about?
Huh?
Show me what you're talking about.
I think I know, but.
There's a song that Bilal did called Sometimes. And it's like a... It's like a.
Yeah, it's that stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah that little yeah those things yeah those things I also cop it yeah exactly but in a way in a way because you hear those things you also hear that kind of twang in country music yeah.
But it's not quite the same it's a different wilt exactly it's got like a different accent it's.
A different accent different vibe on a different yeah exactly but James has he cultivated that thing and it's like that's the thing behind so many of our of the great songs of that time you know what I mean It's amazing. Yeah, shout out to Poison.
Yeah, James.
Great songwriter, too. Like I said, he wrote this song sometimes for Bilal. I mean, he wrote so many great songs. Funny story, when I met you, when I was playing with the Roots of Radio City, we rehearsed this song called Other Side of the Game. That's what it's called, Other Side of the Game. It's an Erykah Badu song.
James is late coming to the rehearsal, so we're in the middle of playing that song. And when he walked in, I was like, oh, the changes are... He was like, oh, I think I know it, because I wrote it. I was like....
That was my, that was my shit.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah. But he's so quiet and subdued.
Did he play with her in the beginning?
Yeah, I think he did shows with her.
He did?
Yeah, I think he did some shows and stuff.
She's always had her band from Dallas.
Which, who I know.
R.C.
R.C.
I went to high school with.
Braylon.
Braylon I went to high school with.
She always had those guys.
Yeah.
But there are times, obviously, when she comes, plays with the Roots or whatever that James is playing with that. But she always had those guys.
Yeah, R.C., Braylon, Lacey.
Daniel Jones. You know Daniel Jones?
Daniel Jones was my freshman buddy when I was a senior. They put us together. And he was like, he's doing great.
He arranges, like, you know, Justin Timberlake shows.
That's crazy.
He's Janet Jackson's music director right now.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, he, like, puts together amazing shows, like, just arrangements and just. Yeah.
But, yeah, Daniel, Corey Lacey, Sean Martin.
Sean.
Sean, I mean.
I just talked to Sean yesterday. Yeah. That's my guy. Yeah, I just talked to Sean.
These guys were huge.
Sputt.
Sputt, yeah. I love his drums.
Yeah.
And his sister, Rochelle.
Yeah.
So they were huge influences on me because they were all like a year or two older. And, I mean, I feel like I absorbed all that in high school from them.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
This whole other thing.
And I had this, we had a rivalry because back then you didn't know what anybody looked like. You couldn't hear anybody really play. Yeah. There was no internet.
Yeah. That's true.
All we knew was, who won Allstate Jazz Band?
Exactly.
You know what I mean?
Or Downbeat Jazz Awards.
Yeah, that stuff.
So one year, I won the piano chair for the Allstate Jazz Band. And then we had IAGE. Remember IAGE?
Oh, my God. I went.
Yeah.
It was crazy.
And you got to meet everybody.
I got to meet everybody. But they came looking for me. Like, who the hell is this guy?
Who's Robert Glasper?
Who's Robert Glasper?
That's still trending right now.
That's so funny.
Who the F is Robert Glasper? Who the F? So... They all came to my show with my high school playing.
Your high school band played.
My high school band played. And I had a solo on like So What or something. And I played. Then after that, I met them and they were all cool. And then we had the jam session. I still have pictures of our jam session. We made a jam session.
Really?
Out of one of the rooms. Me, Sean, Spud, Braylon. I brought Danilo Perez. I was like, hey, man, I'm in high school. We're going to have a jam session. You want to jam with us? He was like, let's go, bro.
Oh, my God.
That's why Danilo is my guy.
He's amazing.
I just saw him at the Grammys just now.
I love him.
He's my guy. Yeah, so it was like those times of IAGE and getting together and seeing all the students that you can't. Yeah. There was no internet, so you couldn't really do a connection like that. So you got to see everybody there.
It was such a scene, though.
It was such a scene.
It was so important. And also, in the 90s, jazz was so exciting. It was such an exciting time for that music.
Absolutely. Kenny Garrett, Brad Mildow.
Brad Mildow.
Have you ever did something with Brad?
I've never done anything with him.
That just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I would love to.
He's so good.
He's amazing.
He's one of my favorites.
I was just on a cruise with him. I got a chance to hang out with him for the first time just now on the Blue Note Jazz Cruise.
Did you turn into a high school kid?
1,000%.
I got a chance to hang out with him, Larry. That's so cool. Yep. And Jeff, Jeff Ballard.
Amazing.
We got a chance to really hang because I would go to his shows, but I was in college.
Yeah, you're not like hanging after the show.
No, I didn't know him like that.
You're like, hey, can you sign my Downbeat magazine?
That stuff, yeah.
Yeah.
And Brad, man, he's just like, he's always been a big influence on me too.
Oh, I love him. And he also loves Radiohead.
Yes, he does. Exactly. Yeah.
I remember going to see Josh Redman in Fort Worth at the Caravan of Dreams. And it was supposed to be Christian McBride on bass, but I think it was Chris Thomas on bass in the end. And it was Brian Blade on drums. And that was my first time seeing Brian play. And now I play with him. And it's like my dream, you know?
It's still my dream to play with Brian. I still never play with him.
Have you never played with Brian?
Not one time.
Oh, okay.
Never.
Let's make it happen.
Oh, man. He's just a... He's a magician. He's a makeup artist.
He is.
You know what I mean? He just makes everything beautiful. He does. It's just, he's so beautiful when you need to be beautiful, and he's groid and just disrespectful when you need to be disrespectful. You know what I mean?
He will hit it hard when it calls for it.
Absolutely. Yes. For sure.
But he's so sensitive.
Oh, man.
But I felt like that watching Chris Davis. I felt like every time he touches anything, it is beautiful. It is like, it's purposeful and there's something magical about it. And they're so different. But like, yeah, I felt like that watching him.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, it was my dream.
When I watch Brian, I love how he looks surprised. He looks surprised at things that are on the drums to me. Like he'll be playing, he'll be playing, and then he'll look at a cymbal, he'll be like. Did you not know it was there? Did somebody bring it and you didn't know? Because he feels like a kid playing.
He's so reactive to everything in the moment. He's more in the moment than anyone I've ever played with.
I feel you.
He's like, yeah, I know this song I'm playing. Oh, I'm going to go over here now. But it's never weird.
His fellowship band, top five concerts I've ever seen in my life. I saw him play at the Vanguard years and years ago when they were still doing it. And it just brought me to tears, you know, like to see.
It's very moving.
Super moving.
It's also very like soulful and like everything he does is with a big heart intention.
I wrote this tune off of, there's a tune called Cricket Creek on his album, his very first record, Kurt Rosenwinkel. And actually, what's it called? I wrote it.
John?
John. John Coward wrote it.
Beautiful John.
I love John.
Beautiful playing. And I wrote a song. I listened to Cricket Creek so much that summer. I wrote a song off like Mood on my very first album. It's a song called Mood.
That's pretty.
I wrote that song because of Cricket Kick. That's the very first tune I wrote for an album. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, yeah.
Oh, we're going to have a lot of tags on this podcast calling out all our favorite people.
Absolutely.
It's amazing. Absolutely. But it's important because you don't get a chance to really tell the story of, you know, who helped you get here.
Where you came from.
Where you came from. It could be one song from one person that meant so much that it's a part of your life and part of your whole thing. You know what I mean?
Or it could be all my friends from high school.
Absolutely.
One more. Shelton Summons.
Yeah.
Charles McCampbell.
There you go.
All those things.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I had Kendrick Scott. I had Walter Smith.
And so they were at camp, too, though.
I met them at camp, too.
They were at camp. Mackenzie Smith.
Mackenzie?
Mackenzie.
Yeah.
And I went to college with Mackenzie, too. Oh, gotcha.
Gotcha. Yep. Yep. That's my guy. Yeah, man. It's like.
It's that family.
Shh.
Absolutely. It's so good. You know, those performing arts high schools really shape you. You don't realize it in the moment, but it's like they really, really shape you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Oh....
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Yes!
That was so pretty!
There's nothing like those black kids.
Oh, no. Listen, it's always nice.
Oh, that was fun.
Absolutely.
I went to ninth grade at a regular high school.
Me too.
Yeah?
Yeah.
So you went later.
I went in 10th grade. I auditioned in 9th grade. I made it. But in my mind, I was going to be a basketball player.
Really?
I still wasn't convinced with the piano yet.
Yeah, because you're tall.
Because I'm tall and I thought I was going to be a basketball player. Because in junior high, I was one of the good guys on the team. Mind you, I went to all-white junior high pretty much.
And so in.
Basketball, I was one of the good ones. When the school was integrated and you had to go through the thing and now you're at a high school where there's all these other schools.
You weren't good anymore?
Oh, I rode the bench the whole year.
Oh, no.
Was that really depressing?
Oh, it just made me slide the bench over to the piano. It's the same bench.
I like that.
It's the same. I'm glad that I realized I sucked early. I think that's important.
Oh, God.
Knowing what you're really good at and what you suck at early and being a realist. Because what happens is, I tell people all the time, you confuse your hobby with your gift. You know what I mean?
I don't know.
I mean, I get what you're saying, and I agree to a certain point, but I feel confused. I guess with the kids, you know, sometimes they want to give up on something, and I don't want them to give up yet.
Not kids.
Oh, you're talking about? Yeah.
My mom didn't let me give up on piano. I told her I want to play basketball. She said, fine.
But you have to still.
But you still have to take piano lessons.
Yeah, my mom, too.
Because my mom saw the gift. Yeah. I didn't see it.
Okay.
I'm talking about when you're grown. Oh, gotcha. Later in high school, that's when you kind of know where you're going, what you got a vibe with.
That's true.
You know what I mean? Kids know. They don't know yet. So if you see a passion about something they're not good at, let them do it because they might get good at it.
Yeah.
But once you get, you know, you're 17, you're 18 now.
You're grown.
You're grown now. And you know that over here, you do this so well with the least effort. Yeah. That's the gift.
That's the gift.
That's the gift. Whatever you do really well with the least effort, that's most likely you have a gift. And you can do things. You like to do things. I love playing basketball. I still love playing basketball. But that's a passion of mine. I love to watch it now. I don't play much anymore.
It's your passion, but you're not going to be starting on the starting team.
Sometimes your passion is not your gift. My passion is music, obviously. The first passion.
Yeah.
Luckily, my passion is my gift. And they work together. And that works.
That's how I feel. I feel like music is my hobby.
Oh, really? What's your passion?
Well, no.
It's my passion, too.
So music is your hobby and your passion and your gift.
It's all of them.
Gotcha. Do you have any hobbies?
I like to ski and take hikes.
Yeah.
And I like to do pottery.
Really?
Really?
I make these really fucked up looking masks.
That you hang on the walls? Yeah.
Oh, really?
Yeah, they're really weird.
Oh, cool. Yeah. But like, you know, I'm glad that my mom was a realist. She was like, she let me actually go to high school for basketball. I didn't want to go to performing arts high school yet. So I was going to play. She let me sit the bench the whole year and let me realize myself.
Oh, so smart.
I suck at this. But I was still taking piano lessons at the same time. So then I did the switch the 10th grade year.
And then you were in.
I was in, yeah.
She sounds like she was special.
She was.
Yeah.
My mom was very special. Absolutely.
It's nice to have someone looking out for you.
Yeah.
My mom made me audition for Arts Magnet.
Nice.
Because I wanted to go to Interlochen. Do you know about that place?
I know Interlochen.
Yeah, you've probably done a gig there.
Where is Interlochen?
It's in Michigan.
Yeah.
It's a big arts camp. I went to summer camp there. I got this scholarship to go to summer camp up there. And they have a boarding school.
Gotcha.
And I wanted to go to the boarding school so bad after I went to the camp. And she was like, there's no way I'm sending you to boarding school. No way in hell.
Right, right.
But look, Dallas has a, we lived in Grapevine. So Dallas has this arts school. Why don't you audition for it? So I auditioned.
Boom.
Yeah.
The way I got into it, I didn't even know about the art school. My mom used to let me drop her off at her job and take the car. Oh, cool. I mean, I would have to drive home. Couldn't, like, be out.
Oh, gotcha.
You were, like, cruising.
Yeah. So ninth grade, I used to drop her off. I'd get to drive, you know? Drop her off, and it was her standards night. She was singing and playing piano at this bar, standards, you know, the same. And the deal was she let me take the car home and then come back and pick her up at, like, 1 a.m. or something.
Yeah.
And I had to come in and play a song with her.
That's so rad.
For the last night, for the last song of the night. I would go play a song with her. And we would do some jazz standard.
Oh, man, that's so special.
Body and Soul or Perdido or There'll Never Be Another You. We had a few little things.
Do you have video of it?
No, that was like.
Yeah, before everybody had.
94.
Yeah.
You know?
Totally.
So the bartender one night was like, your son's really good. My friend is the professor of. At the high school for the performing arts. He should go audition. You know, you should have him audition.
That is so cool.
She's like, oh, Rob, you want to audition? I was like, no, Mom, I want to go to Elkins High School. I want to play basketball. She's like, no, you're going to audition. So I auditioned, and I got in. But again, I was like, I want to play basketball. I want to play basketball. And I was playing clarinet.
Oh.
In the marching band.
Okay. Yeah, saxophone, marching band.
Come on.
Yeah. Come on.
Come on.
You know what I mean? You know you have a picture of yourself in that outfit, right?
Oh, it's somewhere. It's somewhere for sure.
Hanging on the walls at the high school probably.
For sure. Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, I was doing that. And, you know, there was a girl involved. You know, because when you do marching band, you start the summer before you go to school. You start marching band before you even go to school.
Early.
Before you get to school. I started dating this girl so I was like nah mom I want to go to Elkins she was like okay fine go to Elkins do that and then I realized where I needed to be you know but it was I didn't even know any jazz piano players when they asked me for the audition she was like who are your favorite jazz piano players.
Really you weren't listening to that stuff.
Yet all I knew was two people This is eighth grade, by the way.
Yeah.
I knew Chick Corea. I knew Oscar Peterson. Okay.
That's more than I knew in eighth grade.
That's it.
Yeah.
Actually. I just knew Billie Holiday in eighth grade and Sarah Vaughan.
Word.
Yeah.
I mean, that's all you need. You know?
I didn't know the piano players yet. I mean.
Yeah.
I didn't know I knew them yet.
Yeah.
Yeah. Wow.
That's cool. Did you say you wanted to do Sunrise?
Absolutely.
Really?
Yes.
That's so funny.
I love Sunrise.
I love that.
No, Sunrise was like my wake-up song for so long. It's such a nice wake-up joint, you know?
It has a good vibe, yeah.
It definitely has a good vibe.
It definitely has morning vibes.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I was wondering, like, because you knew me and because I was on Blue Note.
Yep.
And then what year were you on Blue Note?
I got signed to Blue Note 2005.
Okay.
Yep.
Okay, yeah.
And I was the first signing of an instrumentalist since you.
Yeah, really?
Yeah. They couldn't afford anybody until you came out with I Don't Know Why.
Yeah.
And then they couldn't afford to sign an instrumentalist again. That's why I said it.
Man.
I made a joke to Eli. Shout out to Eli.
Shout out to Eli Wolf.
Yeah.
I made a joke. I was like, let's name my album Thank You, Nora.
That's so funny. I think I read that you said that somewhere. Yeah.
Yeah.
I feel like I remember feeling really self-conscious about my my jazz level at that point, because it's where I came from. But I didn't think that record was a jazz record. But then a lot of people kept saying it was. But it wasn't really. But I felt like maybe jazz musicians were mad at me or something. You know what I mean?
They should thank you.
But you know what I mean? I felt like this weird, like, I'm not... Actually, I do feel.
Like a jazz musician.
A jazz musician, this is my take on it. When you're a jazz musician, it just gives you the tools... to do whatever you want. You know what I mean? Like, to play jazz in a mediocre way, you have to be better than other musicians in any genre, other than classical. Classical and jazz are the only genres where you pretty much have to master your instrument just to play it in a mediocre way.
Yeah, it's hard.
It's hard. So you have to really master it. You have to learn it. You have to really, really know it. You know what I mean? So it just gives you the tools. Now you have the tools to do whatever, you know? And that's how I look at it. And even the. A lot of jazz musicians we love, they don't stop at just playing jazz, you know?
No, I know that.
All of that I know now.
Absolutely.
But I think at 23, I felt a little.
Oh, of course.
Yeah, sure.
Like, if I saw Jason Moran, I was like, oh my gosh, does he think I'm a loser? Like, you know, he's such a serious jazz musician.
But he's not. That's the thing about Jason, too. I love Jason. We went to the same high school, too.
Yeah, I was going to say. He's older, right?
Yeah, he's older. He went to school with Chris Dave.
That's right.
Yeah. But he has a... He's way more broad and open-minded and for other things than people might think. You know what I'm saying? But he's a huge supporter of mine from the very beginning and all the things I was doing, extra things outside of jazz. He was like, man, do that shit.
Well, he gave me advice once, too. I did one of those Blue Note 50 anniversary at the Kennedy Center. He asked me to sing with him and Wayne Shorter.
Oh, I was there.
Yeah, you were there.
That's right, that's right.
He asked me to sing with him with Wayne Shorter, Brian Blade, and John Patitucci.
Yeah.
And I was so, like, honored and scared, kind of, to sing with him. And then Jason emailed me later. He's like, you should make a record with Wayne. And I was like, really?
Yeah.
And that's why I asked him to play on that record. I mean, he played on, like, three or four songs. Yeah, absolutely.
I know.
Jason's a great producer.
He's a producer.
It was, like, the encouragement that I needed to feel worthy to even ask.
Yeah, absolutely.
It was really sweet. Yeah.
No, he's that guy.
He's like, give me a little advice.
Yeah, for sure.
So it's sweet to me that you want to play Sunrise because I think of it as a country song.
I love country.
Yeah, of course. You're from Texas, baby.
I'm from Texas. Yeah. My dream is to go on tour with Bonnie Raitt one day.
Oh, my God.
You should.
I love Bonnie Raitt.
Have you ever played with her?
No.
She's great.
I love her.
I played with her once. Really? Yeah, I got to sing with her.
Really?
Once, yeah.
Oh, nice. She's the best.
Even if I get to just play I Can't.
Make You Love Me.
I Can't Make You Love Me. Even if we just do that, I'm good.
Let's just do it.
I'm good. Yeah, let's make that happen. I am so good, you know what I mean? You know, I sat with Bruce Hornsby one day.
I forgot that was him.
It was him.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
We sat at the piano one day. I'm a huge Bruce Hornsby fan.
Yeah.
And we sat at the piano one day. He showed me how he played it and hooked it up. Yeah.
Yeah, Bruce is like.
He's great.
I just learned recently that that's him.
Really?
Because, you know, growing up, I never knew what was what. I just didn't pay attention.
Yeah, yeah.
I didn't have the album. I knew the song by heart from the radio, you know.
It's one of the greatest songs.
It's such a great song.
Written by a football player.
Really?
You know, Don Wise produced it.
I don't know any of this.
Wait, you don't know Don produced it?
No, I didn't know that.
Yeah, so shout out to Don Woods, by the way.
Oh, man.
Don, we love you.
When you get a minute, have Don tell you the whole story of how he ended up producing Luck of the Draw. That's the album. Bonnie Raitt, Luck of the Draw. That's his first album that he ever produced. But the way it came about was just so random. It was super random. And you just have to ask him about it.
It's a long story. But it's amazing. But he produced that song.
Man, I didn't know that.
And Bruce Hornsby played piano on it.
Wait, who's the football player who wrote it?
I don't know the guy. I don't know the guy's name. But he was, the football player was watching TV. He was watching something like Cops, one of those shows. And the guy had handcuffs. And I have an argument with his wife. And before they put him in the car, he was like, I can't make you love me if you don't.
Are you serious?
So the guy wrote a song. But Don West said the song was fast. He was like, I can't make you love me if you don't blow up. So Don was like, bro, let's slow it down. And it was his idea to slow it down and make it a thing. Then he brought Bruce Hornsby in, hook up some nice changes. And then, yeah, then they recorded it. And it was Don's idea for the drummer. I met the drummer. He came to one of my shows with Don. Don was like, this is a drummer and I can't make you love me.
Amazing.
It was Don's idea to have him use brushes.
It's just the saddest thing. sentiment and so beautifully said.
Amazing. That song and Time After Time, you know I played that with Cindy Loveless.
Did you?
I manifested that. Time After Time is one of my favorite songs of all time.
I think it's our generation's favorite song of all time.
Like, it has to be in there.
It has to be.
Like, top five. It's in there. Top ten for sure, but top five.
It's undisputable.
I played at my show sometimes just to get the audience to do sing-alongs for fun.
Oh, I saw that at your show.
Did you?
Yeah.
Oh, not that song, but I like that you did all that.
So I would bring Time Out of Time in, and one day, like four years ago or something, her people called my people, and it was like, hey, Cindy would love for Robert to come play at her fundraiser she does every year.
Oh, yeah, I did one of those. Did you?
Yeah.
At the Beacon Theater. Yep. Yes. And he wanted to play Time at the Time.
I was like, fuck.
Because she knows that she's cool because she checks stuff out.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
We rehearsed one time at SIR. Went and played it literally one time. Everybody was crying. I was crying. She was crying. Her team was crying. Her team said, Robert, we've been watching her do this song for 40 years. They said it's never been like that.
But isn't it beautiful when you can change the emotion of something?
Jesus.
And it comes out like that?
Oh, my God.
It was just the two of you?
Just two of us, duo. First of all, I didn't know it was going to be duo. I'm thinking I'm playing with the band.
Yeah.
Just duo. And she played steel guitar.
What?
Me and her.
I didn't know she could play steel guitar.
Her on steel guitar.
Amazing.
And me on piano. And we did it one time at rehearsal. She was like, that's it. We're not doing it anymore until the show.
Yeah, save it.
And we did that at the show. That was one of the most nervous I've never been. I don't get nervous. I was shaking.
You were nervous.
I was nervous.
It was also really naked.
Absolutely. Super naked. So it was like, you hear everything. You know what I mean? That was like, yeah.
That's beautiful.
That was, yeah.
Yeah.
One of the greatest moments.
All right, let's try something.
Now for sunrise.
Now for sunrise. It's a letdown. It's a letdown.
No.
I'm not going to play. I want you to play. Is that cool?
Sure.
Do you know the chords enough?
Yeah, sure. I think I do. We'll see where it takes us.
I never get accompanied by another pianist.
You always accompany yourself.
And I think I have a thing with it, and I really like it. But this is a treat because it's you.
Yeah, I love it.
It's fun for me.
I love it. Take a little sip here.
That's right. Nothing like a little of that on an empty stomach.
What's the tempo?
Whatever you want. It don't matter.
Let me see. Let me do it again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I didn't come in.
Let me see. Is it....
Then it goes to the.
Okay, gotcha.
Yeah.
Okay, got it.
Just look at me.
Got it, got it.
That's pretty.
Yeah.
Sunrise, sunrise, looks like morning in your eyes.
Where the clocks.
Held 915 for hours sunrise sunrise couldn't tempt us if it tried cause the afternoon's already coming along and I said ooh.
Ooh I said ooh.
To you.
Surprise, surprise Couldn't find it in your eyes But I'm sure it's written.
All over my face Surprise, surprise Never something I could hide.
When I see we've made it through another day.
And I say, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.
To you.
Piano plays softly.
Oh, now the night will throw its cover down All on me again.
Ooh, and if I'm right It's the only way.
To bring me back.
Ooh Ooh To you Ooh Ooh Ooh.
That was so pretty.
That's such a beautiful song.
Oh, I'm so glad.
It's such a beautiful song.
That was so pretty with you playing.
It makes your day start just good. You just start off the day good. That reminds me of when it's sunrise. I literally would put that on in the morning.
Oh, man. It's so beautiful to hear you.
That's great for our first time playing it. I know.
It's so great to hear you play it.
Oh, man.
That had all that stuff.
In it, too.
Yeah, all the things in it. Yeah, all the things.
Yeah.
All the things we've been talking about for the last hour. It's funny, you know, on tour, Brian Blade is an incredible singer.
I'm sure. No, I've heard him sing.
Yeah, he's a great singer.
Beautiful.
I've slowly over the years gotten less shy. I'm like, please sing harmonies. And he's a little shy.
Yeah.
But I'm like, come on. I've tried to Q-tip him a little.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You can do it. You can do it.
He's like, oh, no, no. Yeah, you got it.
Absolutely.
But he totally has it.
Oh, man.
And my favorite thing is when he sings harmonies on it. He'll sing on the oohs. And then he'll sing. We do like a gospel song he sings. And he does like some country harmonies for me.
Let's try it together.
That's pretty.
To you.
You're sweet. This is the most fun.
This is so good.
Of course.
Thank you for doing this.
I love it.
Thank you for having me.
Absolutely.
Let's do your song.
Let it ride.
Yes.
Let's do it.
I want to do it. Okay, first of all, when Eli asked me to sing on this, and we went into the studio.
Yeah. Oh, I wasn't even there.
You weren't even there.
I was on tour.
I know.
Yes, exactly. He's like, I think I can get Nora to do it. I'm going to ask her, because she lives right on the corner from the studio.
Oh, yeah, yeah. I love that place.
Andy.
Shout out.
Shout out to Andy at Brooklyn Recording.
Andy Taub, Brooklyn Recording.
My guy right there. I love that studio too. It's just so, it makes, it's so inspiring. It makes you want to create because he has everything there.
It's so easy. Yeah, like we pulled out of Marimba once when we were recording there.
And if he doesn't have it, he has like OCD with stuff. If he doesn't have it, he gets it. Yeah. I tricked him. I didn't trick him. I purposely was like, I was doing something for a score or something. I was like, hey Andy, do you have a timpani? He was like, no.
That's why he got the timpani?
That's why he got the timpani.
You created that.
Because of me.
We used it.
You used it?
We used it on my third album, I'm pretty sure.
I was like, I have a timpani. Oh, you don't have it? Well, I'll do it at another studio because I have a timpani.
Oh, snap.
And he got it literally the next day or the day after. It was like, he needs to.
Yeah, I feel like if I ever need something cool, I tell Andy that I need it and he finds it online for me.
He finds it.
He finds it.
I love Andy. He has to have it.
That's amazing.
Yeah, I sang on this song and you said... Who wrote the lyric on this? I met her at the Blue Note.
Yeah, Moonsina.
Moonsina.
Moonsina, a great, great vocalist, great songwriter. She does a lot of stuff with Common.
Okay.
But yeah, and she has her own stuff on, you know, but she's great. And yeah, she wrote, I called her. I was like, hey, I want to do this song. Can you please like write the lyrics? She was sick. And I was like, just write the lyrics for me. Just write it. And she was like, okay. And she did a little demo for it.
She sings.
Yeah, she sings. She sings, plays, and arranges. She's great.
Oh, man, that's so cool.
And, yeah, she wrote this and gave it back to me, like, literally the same day. She's really fast, too. Yeah. Like, super fast. And then you met her at the Blue Note.
I met her at the Blue Note, and I was so excited. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. So shout out to Monsena.
Yeah. I love this song.
Absolutely.
And when I sang it, you weren't there, but Eli was there. And Eli's like my brother.
Yep.
Because he's been at He was at Blue Note when I got signed.
Me too, yeah, exactly.
I mean, I don't know about you, but I felt very lucky to fall into a record label that became my family.
Absolutely.
JR, Chem, Zach, Eli, so many others.
At the label. Shanika, yeah.
Shanika, yeah. Early on, whenever my first album came out, it was so big, but I had this protective bubble.
Mm-hmm.
Even though they were pushing me to people, they were, like, protecting me.
And Bruce, man, Bruce.
And Bruce.
Oh, my God, Bruce Lundvall.
Of course. Yeah, absolutely, man.
The godfather.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And Eli's like, hey, Nora.
Yeah, exactly.
We should do, like, a song with Glasper.
Eli Wolf!
Eli, Eli.
Yeah, so I was kind of sick when I recorded it, and I think I was a little bit of a pain in the butt. I was like, I can't sing today. It sounds so good. It sounds really good.
But sometimes sickness adds a little something. Yeah, it does. A little color, a little something.
Exactly.
I love it. I love it.
So let's do it.
Absolutely.
And Chris, Daddy Dave on this?
No.
No?
On that album, that's Mark Hollenberg.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, Mark Hollenberg is on the Black Radio 2. Oh, man. So he's doing it on the whole album. So many people think that's a drum loop or something, but no, it's Mark playing it down.
I actually thought it was crisp because it sounds like a drum loop.
Yeah, exactly.
And he's so good at like.
Exactly.
I didn't know that. Mark Hollenberg.
Mark Hollenberg, yeah.
That's so cool. It's so good.
The groove is insane.
Absolutely.
I kind of want to play that part.
You should.
That's dope.
Yeah.
Let's do that, absolutely.
By the way, what are the chords? I just want to know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know I can figure it out, but I'm too lazy.
Yeah, no, for sure. It's C minor. A minor raised five. Yep. B flat minor. B flat minor with a four.
With a 11, yep.
Then F minor nine. Then D minor. D minor 9. Then D flat major. F minor. F sharp major.
I'm never going to remember that. I'm so glad I have it on recorded so I can learn it.
I'll do a little intro thing. And then I'll go into the actual chords.
Cool. I'll let it ride.
You know what I mean? Thank you.
So so.
I've never been a gambler I stay on the safe side You know So I know I'm alright But all of that's forgotten when I'm looking into your.
Eyes I'm happily out on a limb You pull me out from inside.
Love, show me what it feels like. No guarantee of anything. So all my love is on the line.
I let it ride I let.
It ride I let it.
Ride It's easier than ever.
Now To walk away with no sight I know you show me what it feels like I'd happily do anything if I know I'm by your side I'd happily do anything if I know I'm by your side You know you show me what it feels like Guarantee of anything So all of love is on the line.
But let it ride I.
Let it ride So let.
It ride.
I'll let it ride Only for you Just you Ooh Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.
Mmm I let it ride I let it ride I let it ride I.
Let it ride.
Ooh, ooh, ooh Ooh, ooh, ooh Ooh, ooh, ooh.
Thank you.
Nice low fade, man.
Holy crap.
Low fade out, you.
Know what I'm saying?
I love that.
We need to tell the McFerrin. We need to tell the McFerrin that that's something.
Oh, man, that would be amazing. I didn't know you did all that.
I don't. Let's see where it takes me.
That was great. It's a rhythmically, like, complex thing. It's, like, very straight over, like, something that's very straight, but also with nothing straight.
Yeah, absolutely.
I love that. Did you ever do Maren McParland's show?
Yes, I did.
You did?
I thought you did.
I wanted to ask you about that.
Yes, I did her show. Man, it must have been maybe a few years before she passed. Yes. Maybe two or three years before she passed.
Yeah, I think so.
I looked forward to that so much because I listened to her show all the time.
Yeah, in high school?
Absolutely.
You had the tapes going around, right?
Man, absolutely.
Yeah, my teacher in high school, Kent Ellingson, another shout out, Booker T.
Nope.
He had acquired a bunch of tapes of her show from someone who acquired them from someone in a nursing home who died or something. Like, it was a very random.
Wow.
And I remember listening in high school to the Bill Evans one.
Oh, yeah.
Absolutely. Yeah, she's been out here for a minute.
Are you doing the Blue Note again in October?
Okay, cool.
Let's plug it. I mean, you don't need plugging.
You sell it out. Of course. Every October is called Robtoberfest.
Yeah, at the Blue Note in New York.
At the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, I do the whole month of October and like the first week or two of November. So it ends up being like, you know, six, seven weeks, five, six, seven weeks, something like that.
That's when I sat in with you.
Exactly.
Right before the pandemic, I think.
Yeah. But then if we do it, and it's a real gig, you know what I mean, for a few days or something, we can do all these.
Let's do that David Bowie song.
We can do all these extra things. Yeah, that would be amazing. Maybe we can get Brian to come do it with us.
Yes.
And that would be my first time playing with Blue.
We'll make it happen. You're going to play Blade and Bonnie Raitt. Maybe together.
Maybe together.
Let's go.
Let's book a sesh.
Let's do it. Exactly.
Yeah, family for life. I'm so happy to do this with you.
Thank you so much. I love you so much.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Yay!
We did it!
We did do it.
We did it. Oh my God, Bonnie Raitt.
Tell me I.
Turn down the bed.
Turn down these voices Inside my head Lay down with me Tell me no lie.
Just hold me.
Close Don't fade tonight Don't patronize.
Cause I can make.
You love me If you don't.
You can make your heart.
Feel Something it won't Here in the dark These final hours.
I will lay down.
My heart And I feel the power But.
You don't.
No, you won't.
Cause I can't.
Make you love me.
If you don't.
I don't even know what key I was playing. I don't even know.
Oh, my Jesus.
Who'd have thunk I Can't Make You Love Me would be in this episode?
I didn't think.
I didn't know that was going to happen. And I missed the first line. but it was so beautiful.
I love that he knew the story behind how it was written.
I didn't know any of that.
It's totally hilarious.
Oh my God.
And I want to make him and Bonnie meet now.
Oh yeah. You have to.
You should do that.
Yeah.
A little pairing.
And Brian.
Brian.
And Brian.
Yep.
Yep.
That was so fun.
It was so fun to hear him play piano on Sunrise, too, because I felt like his playing adds like a new feeling to it.
Oh, it was totally different and so beautiful. He's so good. It's interesting. We went to see him at the Blue Note probably four years ago, and it was such an incredible show. And he's such an incredible musician. But I feel like a lot of the show he spent featuring other people.
Mm-hmm.
And there was only a few minutes where he really let loose.
Yeah.
And I was like, whoa, yeah. It's like he can do so many different types of shows. Sometimes his shows are like that, where he's featuring all these people and the groove and the songs, and he's playing incredibly. And then when he does like a trio show and he really gets to playing, he's an insane musician.
Right.
Like his group name, Robert Glasper Experiment, it feels very experimental. It's kind of like anything goes.
Yeah.
It's very.
You never know what you're going to get. So it's for the audience. It's so engaging. And he also includes the audience in so much of it.
He does, which is really fun. His shows are so fun. You have to go see him if you haven't. And it was so nice to just hear him play piano, too. You know, like an acoustic piano. Back to the old days of jazz camp. In case you missed the names of any of the songs in this episode.
The first one was Reckoner, a Radiohead cover.
Yes, that he's recorded before. And the second song was Life is Better, which is a song he wrote with Q-Tip that I sang on the album version.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We played Sunrise, one of my songs, and that was really fun. And then Let It Ride, which is a song I sang on for one of Robert's albums, Black Radio 2. And so in case you're looking for that. Florette Africaine by Duke Ellington.
Yes.
That last song we played, that was, of course, I Can't Make You Love Me, Bonnie Raitt, classic. Yes. Thanks to Robert and thanks to you for listening. And you just said that.
And thanks again to everyone who sent us emails and messages to let us know who your dream guests are.
Yes.
We hear you.
We hear you.
And our wheels are spinning.
Oh.
We're working on it. Working on it.
We're on it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Love you.
Bye.
This episode was recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, California by Clint Wielander. Assisted by Zach Zadel. Edited by Sarah Oda. Mixed by Jamie Landry. Additional engineering by Pete Hanlon and Matthew Vasquez. Artwork by Eliza Frye. Photography by Shervin Lenez. Produced by me and my Oda. Executive Producers Aaron Wong-Kaufman and Jordan Runtag. Marketing Lead Allison Cantor-Graber.
