ROBERT GLASPER Vinyl & CDs

Review: The accomplished and influential US jazz cat Robert Glasper has been involved with several of the genre's most essential projects over the last 15 or so years. His Black Radio albums are legendary and his work with Dinner Party is ever more celebrated. In My Element is one of his early works and now courtesy of Blue Note it gets its first-ever release on vinyl. It was a 2007 follow-up to his 2005 debut and marked him out as a rising star with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid alongside him and helping him to expand jazz's horizons. It also shows off his mad compositional skills and unique knack for harmony. A true modern classic.

Review: Robert Grasper very much announced his arrival on the world stage with Black Radio 1. And Black Radio 2 only took him into the stratosphere. Both records proved him to be a master of hip hop, broken beat and jazz and able to call upon some of the biggest names in those scene from Jill Scott to Erykah Badu. Both of those timeless records, as the title suggest, are steeped in Black music traditions and so is this third one. Here the award winning Glasper (nine Grammy nominations and four wins) works with modern greats such as Gregory Porter, Q Tip, BJ The Chicago Kid, Ty Dolla Sign and many more to cook up another powerful statement for these troubled times.

Review: A winningly presented live experience, Robert Glasper and his partners in time signatures perform a whirlwind set of favourites from the Black Radio collection. Highlights include the mindboggling rhythm and dexterity of "Stella By Starlight", the throaty monologue of the legend that is Harry Belafonte on "Got Over" and the softer, more reflective "The Worst". Live recordings go one of two ways; they either alienate you from the fun or they make you feel like you're right there in the front row. This is, without question, the latter. Beautiful.