Dinner Party is the super-group of Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, 9th Wonder, and Kamasi Washington, a collection of some of Hip-Hop’s finest current producers and contributors. With 14 Grammy Nominations between the group, Dinner Party utilizes the strengths of each musician seamlessly, blending their styles to create something soulful for these trying times. At just over 20 minutes, the album leaves the listener with just enough to satisfy them but yearn for more.
Love You So Bad is exemplary of the melding of Hip-Hop and Jazz themes by the groups constituent players, sitting on a vocal call and response refrain—underlaid by melting saxophones and twisted, unquantised drums—coming accross as an instrumental of sorts that wouldn’t sound unnatural with the addition of an MC. The Mighty Tree follows similar themes, an eastern sounding meander replete with a gentle, cascading arpeggiated harp movement, counterpointed by some rugged drum programming and some understated soloing from Kamasi Washington. Feel-good slow jam freeze tag features a soft and harmonious vocal cameo from Pheolix and radiates ease and positivity, reaching similar musical territories as the likes of Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak, certainly a crossover tune that has the potential to catapult this bonafide mixture of serious Jazz musicians into the popular consciousness.
Buy the LP HERE
Check out the tracks HERE
