Q&A: Robert Glasper And Meshell Ndegeocello On Blue Note Napa Jazz Fest

This weekend marks the second annual Blue Note Jazz Festival in Napa, California. The three-day event (July 28 – 30), features an incredible lineup, curated by Grammy winner Robert Glasper, that includes Gary Clark Jr., Mary J. Blige, George Clinton, Nas, Meshell Ndegeocello, Chance The Rapper, De La Soul, Terrace Martin, Talib Kewli and Madlib, BJ The Chicago Kid, Digable Planets, Rakim & DJ Jazzy Jeff and more.

Each day of the festival, held on Napa’s Silverado Resort, is hosted by Dave Chappelle, which is in keeping with Glasper’s idea that jazz is a state of mind. Sage Bava and I spoke with Glasper and Ndegeocello about the lineup, what jazz is, Napa and much more.

Steve Baltin: How long have you been playing the role of festival curator?

Robert Glasper: This is my second year actually. I mean as far as like a whole real festival, this is my second year. I had some training because of my October residency at the Blue Note, which is actually where it started with having to curate six -seven weeks of music straight. So that kind of gets you ready for preparing for a festival. So the festival idea pretty much came out of that so…

Baltin: Basically you’re using someone else’s resources and putting together your dream lineup.

Glasper: Absolutely, it’s literally my playground. And it’s caught on like wildfire. I think last year was year number five, four, can’t remember. COVID messed all my numbers up. But it got to the point where I didn’t even have to put who the guests were, I would just put October Fest and 75 percent of the tickets were sold. So I didn’t even need to have the special guest line up or anything. People just know what the vibe is. ‘Cause I don’t even know what’s going to happen. Like, it just literally happens where I might have a guest here and there, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom but the pop-up guests are so crazy that I don’t even know until a lot of times the night before or the night day of sometimes in the middle of my set. I check my phone, people know now when Robert Glasper checks his phone on stage, it could be something great. So just wait. [chuckle] ‘Cause some people will be like, “Why are you on stage on the phone on stage?” And I’m like, “You’ll see in about 30 seconds.” People are like, “Yo, I’m pulling up, where’s the club again?” All kinds of stuff. And it’s like I’m like navigating traffic while I’m in the middle of a show. But I love it. It’s so much fun.

Baltin: I’ve got a great story for that. And then I’m gonna let Sage jump in. But I was interviewing TLC for this Anthems We Love book I did, and they were telling me a story about Prince coming on stage at Madison Square Garden with them. He just jumped on stage and started playing guitar, but he didn’t tell anybody he was gonna do it [chuckle]. So they just look over and there’s Prince on guitar.

Glasper: Shut the f**k up. Chilling, that’s amazing.

Baltin: So who could get away with jumping on stage with you without telling you?

Glasper: There are so many people. I feel blessed that all of my friend circle is so huge with the best musicians, you know what I mean? The best musicians, the best singers, the best artist, dancers, what have you. So 99.9% of the time, if somebody jumps up on stage with me, it’s because they know they can, they know that we have that rapport. They know I’m a fan of theirs. Even if I’ve never done nothing with them. There’s something there. You know what I mean? So most of the time it’s always cool. It’s always happening.

Sage Bava: Your ability as a host and as a curator is incredible.It’s so similar to improvising in jazz. Did you always have that ability as a host and as a human outside of Robert the musician or was that a skill that you had to learn?

Glasper: Absolutely, the way I am on stage is literally how I am in person. I’ve literally never changed. I run into people now at my shows that I went to elementary school with. They’ll be like Rob, “You may not remember. We were in third grade together fourth grade.” And they’ll be like, “You’re exactly the same.” So who I am as a person has fed the way I am on stage. It’s just me in general. I think that’s one reason why people connect with me. And I feel like I am a good host ’cause I make you feel comfortable. I’m on stage but I don’t make you feel like I’m on stage. I don’t make you feel like, “I’m up here, you’re over there and you paid to see me.” I just make you feel like, “Hey we’re here having a good time.” And I think that’s important. ‘Cause after you bring people in and people feel like family you can do whatever you want. You can mess up. It doesn’t matter.

Bava: I wanted to ask what your definition of jazz now even is because like this curation of all of these different kinds of music and the core of it could still be jazz. Steve and I got to interview Herbie Hancock and he was talking about how jazz is spirit and that can have so many different iterations.

Glasper: Absolutely, jazz is a state of mind. I feel like it’s a state of mind. It’s being open in the moment to what’s happening and to change. And that’s, to me, the core of what jazz is. A lot of people like to put definitions. Some people even put it down to a notation thing or the dotted quarter and it’s like nobody’s thinking about that s**t. Jazz isn’t tied to a specific instrument or a specific note. It’s tied to a feeling and it’s tied to a spirit. It’s tied to a way of thinking. And that’s the way of thinking. If you think jazz you’re open you’re in the moment and you’re cool with change and you’ll go where the wind blows you. That’s a jazz state of mind to me.

Baltin: Who are the artists today that have the jazz state of mind?

Glasper: I feel like every artist that is on the festival has this jazz state of mind. A lot of people are like “Hey I’m when I looked at the festival there’s a lot of artists that are not jazz artists.” They have a jazz state of mind. The backbone of what they do still stems from jazz. If you look at some of the artists like Mary J. Blige, one of her biggest songs is a sample from Roy Ayers “Is My Life.” Nas, his biggest song is a sample from Ahmad Jamal. You can go on and on, Chance The Rapper, most of his stuff is using jazz samples from an actual jazz band. You can go down a list of all the artists there that either have jazz literally in their music or they use jazz samples or the way that they present their music has the jazz fine just being open and free. Or you can tell from their music that they and themselves were inspired by the music.

Baltin: When you’re doing a festival like this and you’re playing with people in this setting, you learn new stuff all the time.

Glasper: Absolutely, you learn stuff about their personality too. Also, if you don’t know somebody, you can learn a lot from them by how they are on stage. And if you know somebody, you can learn a lot about them from how they’re on stage. It’s both actually.

Baltin: Are there people that you’ve turned to now as mentors in this role of having your own playground?

Glasper: Not so much, because the playground has always been my thing. Having guests all the time has been my thing for like 20 years. That’s all in my Rolodex and it’s all in my way of thinking. Having a place to do it all in one place is my first time doing that. So shout out to Steve [Bensusan]for sure, everybody at Blue Note for giving me the space to do it. So in a way you could say they’re my mentors because they’re just saying, “Hey, here’s the club. For seven weeks, do what you want to do and we’ll figure it out.” I’ve never had that much leeway in one place. It’s always been like I have a show here or a few shows here, three or four shows in this month or a week.

Baltin: They did tell us that they’re opening a Blue Note LA. Since you are in LA, will this event now come over to LA at some point?

Glasper: That’s the plan. That’s what we want. Of course, it might even start it off, possibly. But that’s definitely the plan to do that and have an East Coast, West Coast. I think it’d be good for LA culture to have a Blue Note here ’cause they don’t have a club like that here, a club that is from New York that has a New York way of doing things, a New York way of treating musicians, a New York way of doing jams and shows and all that kind of stuff. I think it makes sense to do it here now in LA, especially now that so many musicians because of the pandemic, especially, have moved here as well. So the more places you have to get it out the better and Blue Note’s one of the best places, if not the best place to do that. There are more definitely jazz musicians from the East Coast that are now living on the West Coast. That’s a fact now, as far as since I’ve been coming to LA. A lot of them have moved from New York, especially my peers, and younger have moved out here to LA. So once there’s a place where something can live, then you’ll see all of them gravitate to it. Blue Note will be that place, and then you’ll see what the jazz community really looks like in LA. There’s some cats out here that can really play. What’s been missing is just a home.

Bava: In the spirit of keeping room for magic to come in and create itself, what is your hope or feeling that will occur for this coming festival of some magical instances?

Glasper: One of the cool things about the festival is that so many of the artists are family. So it’s like a big family reunion. And when that happens you’ll see different people jumping on stage with different people. Because normally at a festival, every band plays their set. They play their set and they play the same set they play at the other festival. There’s nothing different, it’s just that person playing their set. You rarely go to a festival and see other artists jumping on with other artists, and creating things in the moment and creating those moments that are great, that you probably will never see again, because those two artists never do that. They’re never in the same place. Behind the scenes people have already talked. Once the thing came out, people are already hitting other artists, “Oh, you want to jump on and do this with us? You want to jump on it?” And some people are already on other people’s albums already and never got a chance to do the song they did and all those things. So I’m looking forward to the collaborations as well, just the pop-up collaborations and making moments. I think that’s what sets this festival apart as well, just having those moments and making those moments a true part of the festival.

Baltin: I’m going to imagine that you go back with Robert many years.

Meshell Ndegeocello: Oh yes, I have known Robert for a long time, since he was a young man.

Baltin: How much fun is it to get to go to something like this that feels like a camp or a retreat where people come and hang out with us as you all reunite and get together and have fun?

Ndegeocello: Yeah, for me I used to live in that area in the late ’90s. So it’d be like a homecoming in a lot of ways. It’d be great to visit that area. One of my favorite parts of the country. And of course, I love a festival and I’m so happy that there’s a festival like this and I don’t have to go to Europe to have that sort of similar experience of being just surrounded by some of the best music you could possibly want to hear.

Baltin: Because you did live in the area and these are friends is it something where you make a plan to go and spend the weekend there and catch up with friends and actually get to watch stuff?

Ndegeocello: You nailed it. I’m staying for another 10 days once I get there. One of my children’s father lives there, we’re gonna hang out. And I’m trying to bring as many friends as the Blue Note Jazz Fest will let me have. But I have a whole day planned. I’m gonna take one of my good friends to have a good experience with a few glasses of wine. I’m gonna try to catch a sunrise and a sunset, I’m excited for the music and I’m also excited for the experience and I must admit I’m curious about what crowd comes all the way to Napa. I’m really excited to see what the audience will consist of.

Baltin: One of the things Robert and I talked about of course is the fact that look this isn’t even though it’s Blue Note Jazz Fest, jazz is a state of mind. It’s people who cover a wide range of music so for you talk about how inspiring that is.

Ndegeocello: Oh, I am inspired by all the musicians that participate in the Jazz diaspora but I am definitely a student of Nicholas Payton and it is black American music. And I just feel immense gratitude that I was brought up by a parent who was a more traditionalist but to be exposed to Cecil Taylor, early Blue Note records, George Russell, but also to know Sun Ra and [John] Coltrane and there’s just these expansive parts. And I must say that I really am grateful to Robert Glasper as well who’s in the lineage of Quincy Jones and Miles Davis where it’s all our music. And I can put self-expression within those boundaries and outlines anytime I want to.

Baltin: Are there things that you look back on previous records or like the last record and see that expression emerge in ways that surprise you?

Ndegeocello: Yeah I’m surprised every day I wake up, to be honest. But musically yeah I think the lockdown was good for me and it gave my mind and my body and my soul a reset. And I think going through my father’s stuff because he passed away and going through the house and finding that old fake book. It was like a emotional time machine and it took me back to the time where yeah my father would walk me through the fake book so I could play gigs when the bass player didn’t show up. And to understand that I’m there to create a foundation for those who live in the world of self-expression. And I’m just overwhelmed with being alive this long I never thought I would come this far through time. And so to be able to play with the people I love and then when we get off stage to be with my friends and see other music. What else would you want as a musician?

Baltin: Are there people that you’re particularly excited to either catch up with or that it’s just like as a fan just excited to be around and see?

Ndegeocello: Oh, well, I gotta stop there. George Clinton, who’s one of my favorite lyricists and I hope to celebrate him one day by really exposing people to his music in a different way that’s not so driven by the funk and the groove. Because to me he has written a tone of life-changing advice. And I was listening to Placebo Syndrome today, so I’m glad he’s stuck in it and that he will continue to perform until he feels he’s truly done. So I’m really excited to experience that. I was a big fan of Gary Clark Jr. just as a YouTube artist to be honest before the records on Warner. So yeah, I’ll be excited to just wash my mind with sound and beauty once I get up there.

Baltin: I’ve interviewed George many times and we were talking a couple years ago. He gave me the greatest headline in the history of journalism. We were doing an interview and we were talking about the opioid crisis at the time and George of course, ’cause you commented on the lyricism, coined the term, “One nation under sedation.”

Ndegeocello: He’s our poet laureate. He needs more credit for that.

Baltin: Let’s have fun with this for a second because obviously this is curated by Robert. If you’re putting together the Meshell Festival, who are the five people that have to be on there?

Ndegeocello: Ooh, Jeff Parker, PJ Harvey, the new Thom Yorke band, Smile. I saw them play and I was like, “This is really amazing.” So I would have the Smile and then Cecile McLorin Salvant. I would have Ravi Coltrane right now. I think that would be my festival.