R+R=Now – R+R=Now Live (2021) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

R+R=Now – R+R=Now Live (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:05 minutes | 1,39 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front cover | © Blue Note Records

In October 2018, Robert Glasper settled into the Blue Note club in NYC for a month-long residency several nights of which featured the new dream team collective R+R=NOW with Glasper on keys, Terrace Martin on synthesizer, vocoder, and alto saxophone, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah on trumpet, Derrick Hodge on bass, Taylor McFerrin on synthesizer, and Justin Tyson on drums. The band had recently released their debut album Collagically Speaking and the music had already taken on expansive new dimensions in concert as evidenced on R+R=NOW Live, a thrilling live recording with standout tracks including “Respond,” “Change of Tone,” “Resting Warrior,” and a cover of Kendrick Lamar’s “How Much a Dollar Cost.”

Behind the cryptic name R+R=Now there stands a group that was launched in 2018 by Robert Glasper, made up of Terrace Martin, Christian Scott, Derrick Hodge, Taylor McFerrin and Justin Tyson. A cast of virtuosos of the current jazz scene(s) with their ears and eyes wide open. They are a generation that grew up to the sounds of a thousand influences. But R+R=Now is also an idea. A philosophy that Glasper elucidates by explaining the origin of the two Rs: Reflect and Respond. He says that he was inspired by a reaction by Nina Simone to people who scolded her for being politically engaged. Some even shouted at her to “shut up and sing”! Her response was as simple as it was scathing: “an artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times”.

Collagically Speaking was recorded in the studio in 2018. This live recording was made in October of the same year in New York’s Blue Note club, where the band had spent several weeks in residence. It documents its times anew, mixing neo-soul, futurist funk, West Coast jazz, electro, instrumental hip-hop and avant-garde music. It is an orgy of improvisation and mixing in the spirit of seventies-era Herbie Hancock, boosted by the sense of risk in a live performance. This is what lends such interest to these rich exchanges and delirious improvisations: the chance to hear them without the artifice of the studio. The spirited cover of Kendrick Lamar’s How Much a Dollar Cost is a guaranteed knock-out (Terrace Martin also played on the original). This instrumental version is as soulful as they come. – Marc Zisman

Tracklist

1. Respond (Live)
2. Been On My Mind (Live)
3. How Much A Dollar Cost (Live)
4. Change Of Tone (Live)
5. Perspectives/Postpartum (Live)
6. Needed You Still Feat. Omari Hardwick (Live)
7. Resting Warrior (Live)

Download:

mqs.link_RRN0WRRN0wLive20212496.part1.rar
mqs.link_RRN0WRRN0wLive20212496.part2.rar