In December Robert Glasper

• 1 Fireside (Intro) 00:52
• 2 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen / Carol Of The Bells (Medley) 05:02
• 3 Make It Home 03:47
• 4 Memories With Mama 03:38
• 5 Joy To The World 05:27
• 6 December 04:57
• 7 Little Drummer Boy 06:52
• 8 Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 06:41
• Total Runtime 37:16

Info for In December

Multi-Grammy and Emmy-winning artist and producer Robert Glasper releases a new holiday EP, In December. Featuring an esteemed roster of frequent collaborators—PJ Morton, Alex Isley & Andra Day—the eight track project is an evocative and moving addition to Glasper’s critically lauded catalog. In December sees Glasper’s unique approach to contemporary R&B and jazz, encapsulated in his famed Black Radio series, applied to what is a sonically unique take on holiday music.

Is there anything to be done with carols like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “Joy to the World” that hasn’t been done in the past 300 years? If there is, Grammy-winning pianist, composer, and producer Robert Glasper is the kind of artist to do it. “I like covering songs that people know well,”. (Robert Glasper)

“That’s what I’ve done throughout my whole career.” It’s true: As a jazz pianist, he’s obviously learned his way around making classics his own, whether they were written by Mongo Santamaría or Kurt Cobain. But, he says, “The biggest challenge in making a holiday album was trying to do it in a way that feels festive but at the same time feels real and not corny.” (Robert Glasper)

He succeeds on both fronts on In December, his holiday album that mixes classic carols with a set of originals, and which was recorded in Spatial Audio. Part of what keeps it credible is the fact that Glasper’s hiphop/R&B/jazz fusion is done on a compositional level instead of just a cosmetic one (no collages of sampled sax solos and drum loops here). The covers reveal a lot about his musical worldview: Sung by Tony winner Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple), “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is turned into dark, airy neo-soul, while “Joy to the World”—sung by Alex Isley—feels like a Stevie Wonder ballad. But the originals reveal even more. “The intention for this album was less about Christmas songs and more about songs that feel good during the holidays,” Glasper says. “I stayed away from thinking too much about Christmas and its traditional lingo, and concentrated on real things people go through during the holiday season.”

Robert Glasper

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