It doesn’t seem that long ago that Robert Glasper was playing unassuming support acts for much grander names on the circuit. Now the American pianist — appearing here in the EFG London Jazz Festival — is the hottest of hot tickets, thanks to the success of Black Radio, a hiphop-meets-improv album that oozes street cred.
Some of his fans could well have been wrong-footed by his starring role at the Blue Note label’s birthday party. Rap rhythms may been seeping from the PA before the set began, but from the opening, precisely calibrated assault on Wayne Shorter’s tune Witch Hunt this gig headed in a very different direction. With the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire (subject of no end of breathless reviews lately) leading the front