Black Radio III CD

Pianist Robert Glasper has been pushing at the boundaries of jazz for much of his career, with his sporadic Black Radio albums - the first dropped in 2012 - offering the kind of freewheeling, anything-goes musical fusion that draws on a multitude of Black American-pioneered styles (particularly soul, hip-hop and jazz-funk). As a result, he's never shy of collaborators and guest musicians, and Black Radio III - his first credited album since 2019 - may well be his most star-studded aural adventure yet. It's naturally a terrific album, with our picks of an extremely strong bunch including the hip-hop jazz bounce of 'Black Superhero', the soulful French vocals and sublime Q-Tip turn on 'Why We Speak' and the brilliance of Glasper's fluid solos on the picturesque 'Better Than I Imagined'.