The Housto jazz pianist, four-times Grammy winner and highly influential collaborator releases the third in his BLM-related series of jazz, hip hop, soul and R&B, featuring another stellar line of guests including Killer Mike, Q-Tip, Common, Gregory Porter, Jennifer Hudson, India Arie and Meshell Ndegeocello. Glasper of course was instrumental in the work of Kendrick Lamar and several other artists. The album opens with a powerful spoken word poem by Amir Sulaiman beginning with George Floyd and expanding to wider theme, Glasper playing gentle chords, and the first half of the album is arguably the stronger with such tracks as Black Superhero with Killer Mike and other rappers, and Why We Speak with Q-Tip and Esperanza Spalding. The soul-jazz fusion gradually moves to a smoother, more R&B and love song themes in the second half, but of that there are also some standouts, including Forever featuring PJ Morton and India Arie, who between them summon up a sound not unlike that of Stevie Wonder. Some later tracks veer towards the slightly saccharine, but overall a sophisticated and profound record with plenty of class in guests and performance, as well as powerful messages. Out on Loma Vista.
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