Growing up in Houston, Texas, Robert Glasper had a strong musical influence from his mother, who played piano and sang gospel music in church as well as in jazz and blues clubs in Houston. Raised on gospel, Motown, and R&B, by his teens he was listening to jazz, rock, pop and hip hop. He attended the Houston High School for the Performing Arts and then moved to New York City to study at New School University. While still in school he was already playing with Christian McBride and Kenny Garrett, and went on to play with Nicholas Payton, Terence Blanchard, and Roy Hargrove.

After releasing his debut album Mood on the Fresh Sound label in 2003 followed by two Blue Note albums with his acoustic Trio—Canvas (2005) and In My Element (2007)—Glasper perfectly captured his unique duality with Double-Booked (2009), an album that juxtaposed his Trio and Experiment bands, and earned the keyboardist his first GRAMMY nomination. Robert has worked extensively with Q-Tip, playing keyboards on the rapper’s 2008 album The Renaissance and also serves as the Music Director in rapper yasiin bey’s touring band.