Co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, the 14th Annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Takes Place September 19-22, 2024, with Free Outdoor Concerts on Liberty Avenue and Paid Events at August Wilson African American Cultural Center
PITTSBURGH, PA, August 8, 2024 – The award-winning composer, bandleader and keyboardist Robert Glasper takes the stage at the 14th Annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (PIJF), co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, on Saturday, September 21, 8:45 – 10:00 pm, in a Free concert on Liberty Avenue between 10th and 7th Streets downtown, near the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC), 980 Liberty Avenue. Backed by drummer Justin Tyson, bassist Burniss Travis and longtime collaborator DJ Jahi Sundance, Glasper returns to Pittsburgh with his modern meld of jazz, R&B, neo-soul, hip-hop, electronica, dub and dance genres.
Glasper has been effortlessly traveling between musical multiverses since he came on the New York City scene in 2003 from Houston’s vaunted Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (where Beyoncé, Jason Moran and many other Houston musicians attended) via The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Glasper’s panoramic pianism evolved from his childhood years of playing piano in his mother’s Baptist church and in Catholic and Seventh-Day Adventist churches. He also heard his mother sing jazz and blues when she took him to the clubs where she performed. Those varied experiences instilled in Glasper an appreciation for many musical styles and the ability to play them.
Glasper has worked with some of his era’s brightest jazz, rap and neo-soul stars including Kendrick Lamar, Jill Scott, Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove and Terence Blanchard. Armed with a piano sound that encompasses Thelonious Monk and Mulgrew Miller, Glasper’s recorded nearly 20 records, remixes and EPs as a leader. They mainly consist of his jazz ensembles on Mood, In My Element and Covered with bassist Damion Reed and drummer Vincente Archer; and albums with his Robert Glasper Experiment featuring drummer Chris Dave, bassist Derrick Hodge and the late alto saxophonist/vocoder Casey Benjamin, performing his critically acclaimed series of Black Radio albums with Yasiin Bey, Lupe Fiasco, Lalah Hathaway, Q-Tip, Esperanza Spalding and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Along with his original compositions, Glasper is also an inspired and imaginative interpreter of rock, hip-hop and pop songs including Nirvana’s “Smells Like Team Spirit,” David Bowie’s “Letter to Hermione,” and Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place”. “Dillalude,” Glasper’s tribute to the late producer Jay Dilla blends jazz and hip hop. Glasper’s five Grammy Awards include Best R&B Album (Black Radio, 2013); Best Traditional R&B Performance (“Jesus Children of America,” 2015); Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Miles Ahead, 2017); Best R&B song (“Better Than I Imagined,” 2021) and Best R&B Album (Black Radio III, 2023).
When Glasper returns to the PIJF stage, he brings with him the revived idea that the engagement of jazz with pop music is a necessary and mutually beneficial one.
For more information and tickets for concerts at AWAACC and VIP packages for the free concerts, please log on to https://pittsburghjazzfest.org.
SPONSORS
The 2024 Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival is co-presented by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, with generous support from the Mellon Foundation. Additional sponsors include UPMC, UPMC Health Plan, P&W BMW and Mini of Pittsburgh, Rivers Casino, VisitPittsburgh, Xfinity, Allegheny County Airport Authority, Carnegie Mellon University, the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, NRG Energy, Green Mountain Energy, and Duquesne University.
The engagement of Luedji Luna is made possible in part through the Performing Arts Global Exchange program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Instituto Guimarães Rosa.
Presenting Sponsors for the Libation Station Tent are Bacardi and Arsenal Cider House.
Special thanks to media sponsor, Comcast NBC Universal, and media partners, Jazz Corner, WZUM, Downbeat, and Code M Magazine.
ABOUT HIGHMARK INC.
An independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Highmark Inc., together with its Blue-branded affiliates, collectively comprise the fifth largest overall Blue Cross Blue Shield-affiliated organization in the country with approximately 7 million members in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and western and northeastern New York. Its diversified businesses serve group customer and individual needs across the United States through dental insurance and other related businesses. For more information, visit www.highmark.com.
The Highmark Bright Blue Futures program is designed to ensure healthier, brighter, stronger futures for all, and it focuses on improving equitable access to care, quality of life, and economic resilience in the communities the enterprise serves. For more information, visit Highmark Bright Blue Futures.
ABOUT AUGUST WILSON AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a non-profit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 119,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today. www.awaacc.org.
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Media Contact: Carolyn McClair
(212) 721-3341 | Cmcclair@awaacc.org