Europe

180 gram audiophile vinyl 2xLP + MP3 download

EVERYTHING'S BEAUTIFUL, reimagined interpretations of Miles Davis' music produced by Grammy Award winner Robert Glasper (who also served as coproducer of the MILES AHEAD soundtrack) with musical guest artists including Bilal, Illa J, Erykah Badu, Phonte, Hiatus Kaiyote, Laura Mvula, KING, Georgia Ann Muldrow, John Scofield and Ledisi, and Stevie Wonder. A visionary exploration of the music of Miles Davis, EVERYTHING'S BEAUTIFUL incorporates Davis' original recordings into new collaborative soundscapes and will be available Friday, May 27 (the day after Miles' 90th birthday). The Miles Davis track featuring Bilal ''Ghetto Walkin'', from the upcoming release EVERYTHING'S BEAUTIFUL, premieres today for the first time during Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show on Apple Music.EVERYTHING'S BEAUTIFUL is beautifully crafted collection produced by Robert Glasper, blending a diverse group of master takes and outtakes from across the incomparable Miles Davis Columbia catalog with an impressive lineup of contemporary artists and musicians to create original interpretations.''I didn't want to do just a remix record,'' Glasper noted when discussing the 11-song set. ''My idea was to show how Miles inspired people to make new art.'' Realizing that ''Miles didn't have one audience,'' Glasper recruited a legion of diverse guest artists to add to the magic of the project including familiar collaborators like R&B musicians Erykah Badu, Ledisi, Bilal and KING. They are joined by British soul singer-songwriter Laura Mvula, hip-hop producer Rashad Smith, Grammy-nominated Australian neo-soul quartet Hiatus Kaiyote, rapper/singer Phonte, rapper/producer Illa J, jazz guitarist John Scofield, who was in Miles Davis' band, and the legendary Stevie Wonder.''I am living in the spirit of Miles when I am doing what I'm doing because I am documenting my time period. I'm documenting what's around me. I'm documenting who I am now, where music is now,'' notes Glasper. ''That's what this project is about. I wanted to do something where we can take some of Miles' ideas, shake them up, and try to show the influence of Miles and make new things. And that's the beauty of this whole album. The whole project is based on Miles, but it is based on Miles' vision, it's based on Miles' trumpet, it's based on Miles' voice, it's based on Miles' composition, it's based on Miles' influence, it's based on Miles' swag'' Miles Davis is a rarity: a pioneering superstar who was constantly voyaging into new directions and genres with an ever changing cast of collaborators. Throughout his discography, sweeping change and innovation could happen based on who was in the studio and what they brought to his stunning musical vision. Few American artists have impacted popular music and culture in as broad and long-lasting a way as he did.By similar design, pianist/producer Robert Glasper has built a career out of a vibrant fusion of R&B, jazz and hip-hop. As the leader of the acoustic Robert Glasper Trio and the electronic Robert Glasper Experiment, he's pushed the boundaries of each genre he works in to their breaking point. This is the artist whose album, In My Element (2007), featured mashups of Herbie Hancock and Radiohead and tributes to rapper/producer J Dilla. 2013's acclaimed Black Radio featured collaborations with Erykah Badu, Ledisi, Lupe Fiasco, Yasiin Bey and other artists. Black Radio was also capped by a sprawling cover of Nirvana's ''Smells Like Teen Spirit'' and won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. Most recently, Glasper scored for MILES AHEAD, the Miles Davis film directed by and starring Don Cheadle.EVERYTHING'S BEAUTIFUL is unlike any other in Davis' discography. From the familiar (riffs and passages within the catalog) to the obscure (samples of Miles' in-studio instructions spoken after false starts), Glasper has built something unique but still unquestionably Miles. The cover art was created by Francine Turk and integrates elements of Miles Davis' artwork. With the cover, Turk creates a visual that is similar to the idea of Robert Glasper taking fragments of Miles music and reinterpreting in a unique and modern way.Single LP, black standard weight vinyl, single-pocket jacket, no inserts

Gatefold double LP.On February 28, 2012, Robert Glasper Experiment will release Black Radio (Blue Note Records/EMI), a future landmark album that 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. The first full-length album from the GRAMMY-nominated keyboardist's electric Experiment band-saxist Casey Benjamin, bassist Derrick Hodge, and drummer Chris Dave-Black Radio also features many of Glasper's famous friends from the spectrum of urban music, seamlessly incorporating appearances from a jaw-dropping roll call of special guests including Erykah Badu, Bilal, Lupe Fiasco, Lalah Hathaway, Shafiq Husayn (Sa-Ra), KING, Ledisi, Chrisette Michele, Mos Def, Musiq Soulchild, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Stokley Williams (Mint Condition).Throughout the Experiment wears its eclecticism on its sleeve, presenting new collaborative originals and surprising cover songs. They transform the Afro-Cuban standard ''Afro Blue'' with Erykah Badu, Sade's ''Cherish The Day'' with Lalah Hathaway, David Bowie's ''Letter to Hermione'' with Bilal, and Nirvana's ''Smells Like Teen Spirit'' with Casey Benjamin's vocoder vocal.Glasper has long kept one foot planted firmly in jazz and the other in hip hop. His gig at the Blue Note Jazz Club earlier this year became a freestyle jam session when Kanye West, Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco crashed the stage. 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.''Growing up in Houston, Texas, Robert Glasper had a strong musical influence in his mother, who played piano and sang gospel music in church as well as in jazz and blues clubs in Houston. By the age of twelve, he was playing piano in church and often accompanied his mother in clubs. Raised on gospel, Motown, and R&B, by his teens he was listening to jazz, rock, pop and hip hop. He attended the Houston High School for the Performing Arts and moved to New York City to study at New School University. While still in school he was already playing with Christian McBride and Kenny Garrett, and went on to play with Nicholas Payton, Terence Blanchard, and Roy Hargrove.After releasing his debut album Mood on the Fresh Sound label in 2003 followed by two buzzed about Blue Note albums with his acoustic Trio - Canvas (2005) and In My Element (2007)-Glasper perfectly captured his unique duality with Double-Booked (2009), an album that juxtaposed his Trio and Experiment bands, and earned the keyboardist his first GRAMMY nomination.He's worked extensively with Q-Tip, playing keyboards on the rapper's GRAMMY-nominated 2008 album The Renaissance and co-writing the album single ''Life Is Better'' which featured his labelmate Norah Jones. Glasper also serves as the Music Director in rapper Mos Def's touring band, and has toured with the multi-platinum R&B singer Maxwell. New York Magazine has called his music ''direct, forceful, inventive, and accessible without pandering.''