''Covered: Recorded Live at Capitol Studios'' (simply shortened as ''Covered'') is the seventh album by American musician

Robert Glasper Robert Andre Glasper (born April 6, 1978) is an American pianist, record producer, songwriter, and musical arranger with a career that bridges several different musical and artistic genres, mostly centered on jazz. To date, Glasper has won fou ...

. It was released on June 16, 2015, via Blue Note Records. Recording sessions took place at Capitol Studios in Hollywood on the 2nd and 3rd December 2014. Production was handled by Robert Glasper himself, with

Don Was Don Edward Fagenson (born September 13, 1952), known professionally as Don Was, is an American musician, record producer and record executive. Primarily a bass player, Was co-founded the funk-rock band Was (Not Was). In later years he produced so ...

and Nicole Hegeman serving as executive producers. It features song covers of artists like

John Legend John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and record producer. He began his musical career by working behind the scenes, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's " Eve ...

, Radiohead and Joni Mitchell with a few original tracks mixed in.

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

, Iskinder "Skindoo" Adefris-Yaxley, Josiah Xavier Brown,

Musiq Soulchild Taalib Hassan Johnson (born September 16, 1977), better known by the stage name Musiq Soulchild or simply Musiq (pronounced "music") is an American singer and songwriter whose style blends R&B, funk, blues, jazz, and gospel influences fused w ...

, Ralphie "Hoop" Richardson, Riley Kirkland Glasper and Samuel Josef Brown have provided special guest appearances on the project. The album peaked at number 190 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and number two on both the

Traditional Jazz Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...

and

Jazz Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...

charts in the United States. It was also nominated for a

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album The Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album is an award that was first presented in 1959. History From 1959 to 2011, the Award was called Best Instrumental Jazz Album, Individual or Group. In 2012, it was shortened to Best Jazz Instrumental ...

at the

58th Annual Grammy Awards The 58th Annual Grammy Awards was held on February 15, 2016, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The ceremony recognizes the best recordings, compositions and artists of the eligibility year, which was from October 1, 2014, to September 30, 20 ...

, but lost to

John Scofield John Scofield (born December 26, 1951), sometimes referred to as "Sco", is an American guitarist and composer whose music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention in th ...

's '' Past Present''.

Background

For this album, Glasper reunited with Vicente Archer and

Damion Reid Damion Reid (born June 16, 1979) is an American drummer. Critics have praised his "controlled fury" and "microscopically complex beats." Biography Damion Reid was born June 16, 1979 in West Covina, California, east of Los Angeles, into a musical ...

as The Robert Glasper Trio with whom he released '' Canvas'' and '' In My Element'' and went back to the instrumentation of his earlier sounds. Glasper used material from artists such as Radiohead,

, Joni Mitchell,

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper and songwriter. Known for his progressive musical styles and socially conscious songwriting, he is often considered one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generat ...

and Jhené Aiko several different music genres to give a more straight forward sound than he put out with his other band. Four of the twelve tracks on the album were at least partially written by Glasper himself.

Critical reception

''Covered'' was met with generally favorable reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 74 based on eight reviews.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

's Thom Jurek praised the album, writing "this set is welcoming, open, and warm: it invites fans of all of his musical pursuits along for the ride". Rob Caldwell of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' wrote that the album "stands, in the end, as a multi-layered work possessing an air of adventure, while still remaining accessible. It's a rewarding collection by one of the most significant composers and interpreters in contemporary jazz".

John Fordham John Fordham (died 1425) was Bishop of Durham and Bishop of Ely. Fordham was keeper of the privy seal of Prince Richard from 1376 to 1377 and Dean of Wells before being named Lord Privy Seal in June 1377. He held that office until December 1381 ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' wrote: "quotes on black self-respect from Harry Belafonte and the haunting sound of a piano-shadowed children's chorus namechecking African-Americans who have died at police hands furnish some sobering context for a warm, musical and humane Glasper venture". Another ''PopMatters'' reviewer, Will Layman, stated: "on ''Covered'' Glasper does not try to answer his critics directly, but he certainly plays both wonderfully and from the heart". Marcus J. Moore of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' wrote: "it's a no-frills record that recedes into the background without much fuss, which works for and against the album's overall impact". Chris Barton of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' resumed: "amid so much rewarding yet familiar ground, ''Covered'' sounds more like a step sideways rather than forward".

Track listing

Personnel

The Robert Glasper Trio *Robert Glasper – piano, arrangement * Vicente Archer – bass *

– drums Other musicians *Taalib "

" Johnson – featured artist (track 6) *Harold "

" Bellanfanti Jr. – featured artist (track 11) *Iskiner "Skindoo" Adefris-Yaxley – featured artist (track 12) *Josiah Xavier Brown – featured artist (track 12) *Ralphie "Hoop" Richardson – featured artist (track 12) *Riley Kirkland Glasper – featured artist (track 12) *Samuel Josef Brown – featured artist (track 12) Production *Robert Glasper – producer *Keith Lewis – engineering, mixing *Hayden Miller – art direction, design *Don Q. Hannah – photography *Mitch Blackman – booking

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2015 albums Robert Glasper albums Blue Note Records albums Albums recorded at Capitol Studios