Robert Glasper’s Black Radio III, released in February 2022, features heavy-hitting guest artists on each track, including Common, Esperanza Spalding, Jennifer Hudson, Killer Mike, Q-Tip, Ty Dolla $ign, Yebba, and many more. It’s the third release in the Black Radio franchise; The New Parish describes the concept in its review of Black Radio (2012), which has continued throughout its subsequent chapters:
“’Real music is crash protected,’ state the liner notes of Black Radio … (it) boldly stakes out new musical territory and transcends any notion of genre, drawing from jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and rock, but refusing to be pinned down by any one tag. Like an aircraft’s black box for which the album is titled, Black Radio holds the truth and is indestructible …
Robert Glasper has long kept one foot planted firmly in jazz and the other in hip-hop and R&B,” (working with Q-Tip, Mos Def, Maxwell, and many others). “The Los Angeles Times once wrote that ‘it’s a short list of jazz pianists who have the wherewithal to drop a J Dilla reference into a Thelonious Monk cover, but not many jazz pianists are Robert Glasper,’ adding that ‘he’s equally comfortable in the worlds of hip-hop and jazz,’ and praising the organic way in which he ‘builds a bridge between his two musical touchstones.’”
After starting in F major for the first verse and chorus (PJ Morton, lead vocals), “Forever” shifts up to F# major at for vocalist India Arie’s feature at 1:11. By now showing its colors as an earnest love song, the tune continues with an almost trance-like repeating chorus. Arie and Morton create a subtly shifting tapestry of sound, alternating between tightly coordinated parallel leads and soaring ad libs. By 4:30, the tune has faded out entirely, but then fades back in, its focus completely shifted, in a brief reprise — a Glasper trademark. The reprise explores a few strands of the harmony and textures over a subdued but complex drum solo before fading out again.
for Kym and Marcus
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