If 2020 has shown us anything, it is how quickly circumstances can change. One day you are living your “normal” life. The next you are unexpectedly shut-in for the foreseeable future. So when R+R = Now – a band intended to reflect upon and respond to the events of the current moment, not weeks or months ago-  releases a live album two years after its October 2018 recording at the Blue Note, one is naturally suspect. For a group so focused on current events, what relevancy does this music have years later? While this author cannot pretend to know what transpired during the period from recording to release date, R+R = Now Live (Blue Note, 2021) is not weakened by the passage of time. If anything, the music is more empowered by it.

Consider when Omari Hardwick joins the ensemble on “Needed You Still.” The version included on the studio release, Collagically Speaking (Blue Note 2018), showcases a narrator missing a loved one who passed and their struggles without that person in their life.  It is also laden with religious imagery as the speaker tries to make sense of the universe.“ Needing you to bring back the chalk/So we can outline the love/ Flirting with ash to dust/ Feel like a vast land between us/ A nomad feigning for romance and a bus/ I feel like the last man with no meaning/ My heaven been in hell for months.” Live revisits these cues but also subtly explores the dual nature of technology. Hues of this concept were in the original but used primarily to accent the song’s other themes. “So much distance, feel like we phony/Like we never really exist/Like when we FaceTime you be like “who is this?’” But on Live, Hardwick adds one simple line which recontextualizes these phrases. “Like I’m reading a poem off a phone, that way when you call I can be home” shows these tools have utility as well. These themes- personal distance, man’s place in the universe, and technology – all take on new meanings or have been subject to new examinations during the pandemic era. 

Similarly, the spontaneity of live performance produces songs that are rawer, less processed, and more organic. Conversations with the audience and jokes by Robert Glasper recur which would not have worked in a studio setting. “Perspectives/Postpartum” begins with the pianist joking about the piece – a combination of compositions by Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and Taylor McFerrin respectively – being a “medley joint.” And it concludes with Glasper mocking Linda Rondstadt’s “Somewhere Out There” while trying to make light of how streaming services treat artists and Justin Tyson’s futile efforts to get the pianist to rap. Although it is easy to write off these little items as non-sequiturs, they play a significant role in creating greater intellectual intimacy between the artists and the listener. This closeness is particularly precious in an era where public performances are prohibited. 

This aspect of the music also manifests itself in intentional changes in color. “Been On My Mind” once started with a haunting trumpet and Goapele’s swaying R&B influenced vocals with bass and drums in the background. Now, a laid-back solo by Derrick Hodge begins the piece then weaves in and out of Glasper’s phrases. The absence of vocals relaxes the song while accenting the underlying groove. Particularly fascinating is how the band produces a human-like sound when the only voice is disguised behind a vocoder. Part of this comes from a short repeated beat that sounds almost biological, like a small cough or a hiccup. Again, a subtlety but another reminder of the ability to share human emotion through non-verbal means, again something of increased importance in a time of COVID. 

The track which will probably receive the most attention on Live is “How Much a Dollar Cost.”  The Martin co-penned tune from Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg, 2015) is enjoyable but it is a mistake to pin it as the album’s finest moment. Instead, that honor lies with “Resting Warrior.”

Collagically Speaking’s version mined the middle ground between jazz and funk, reminiscent of Weather Report or the Headhunters, but with a slight modern R&B tinge. A passionate trumpet solo combined with fleeting synthesizer runs and Glasper’s Hancock-like keyboard phrases. That version is excellent but does not compare to Live’s stirring twenty-five-minute epic. The latter builds from a deep bassline and repeated kalimba motif into fiery drum rhythms and wisps of keyboards, adding an African tinge. Martin’s alto sax- an avenue of his talent generally underutilized by the group – provides an extra layer of soulfulness even as he wanders untethered by his surroundings. His solo ultimately builds to a fever pitch only to subside and make room for Christian whose trumpet sends images of a lone figure wandering a barren foreign land searching for something familiar, occasionally dueling a synthesizer for survival. Over time, synthetic tones subsume his clarion cries for assistance. But then the kalimba returns, slowly but surely burning a path for the stranded traveler through the wilderness. A lengthy dialogue between synthesizer, keyboards, bass, drums, and vocoder ensues. Their texture reminiscent of Miles’ explorations in the early 70s but, again, with a more contemporary feel morphs into a funk rhythm before revisiting the theme. “Resting Warrior” shows the malleability of musical ideas and is exciting and unpredictable. The piece is a wild ride and alone worth the price of admission. 

It would be a mistake to assume the years that passed between R + R = Now Live’s recording date and its release diminished its power. Instead, the chaos of 2020 adds new contexts to much of the album. And in the case of “Resting Warrior,” a sonic environment emerges which seemingly transcends time itself. 

‘R+R=Now Live’ will be available on Blue Note Records on February 12, 2021

Tracklist: 1. Respond; 2. Been On My Mind; 3. How Much a Dollar Cost; 4. Change of Tone; 5. Perspectives/Postpartum; 6. Needed You Still; 7. Resting Warrior.

Personnel: Robert Glasper (piano, keyboards), Terrace Martin (synthesizer, vocoder, alto saxophone), Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah (trumpet), Derrick Hodge (electric bass), Taylor McFerrin (synthesizer), Justin Tyson (drums).