On February 26th, 2016 I attended a masterclass led by none other than Robert Glasper. For those of you who do not know that name, he is an American jazz pianist and record producer. He has played all over the world, and has 2 Grammys. He has worked with musicians such as Erykah Badu, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, and so many more.

During the masterclass, I took out my notebook, and tried to transcribe some quotes and stories, I also wrote down my thoughts while the class was going on, and now I want to share them with you. I'll put them in a numbered format, because odds are, you will have more motivation to read this if each passage has a number in front of it.

Thought 1. Well, I found all the men at Skidmore today. In this masterclass there are only men here, except one other girl and me.

Thought 2. I think the Glasper Trio is pretty harsh. Maybe that's jazz. One guy from the trio just told this group that they played their piece wrong, and that if he payed $50 to see them, then he would have left. Does the Glasper Trio feel like they can be more harsh because its all guys and the genre is jazz? It's kind of crazy how we can judge jazz, and the players. Almost all of the critique is about the feeling than the notes. Except this group now that apparently don't have the right chord changes.

Thought 3. Wow. Jazz pieces that incorporate the vibes really makes me feel like I'm in a hotel lobby that's been placed on a mediocre cruise boat while floating in the Caribbean, maybe off the island of St. Lucia.

Quote 4. "Don't have your own agenda when you're soloing."

Quote 5. "Rhythm is infinite."

Tip 6. "Bonus tracks are on albums that release in Japan, France, and sometimes Germany."

Story 7. "I went over to Dr. Dre's, and played on "For Free". Kendrick heard me play, and liked it. So then he started bringing out the already finished songs and I started playing on them. I played like 7 or 8 songs. I came in on the end and sprinkled my shit on it."

Story 8. "It was cool working with Don Cheadle because he's a musician and knows the terms like modes and mixolydian. While I was on tour, the other pianist (Jason Moran) was working on Selma, and I was working on Miles Ahead. It was my first time scoring, and Don's first time directing a movie. He wanted it to be an action movie, not a documentary. Don was working on House of Lies, and I was on tour in Europe, so I would send something over, and not hear back about it in a couple of days. Don wanted the actors to act to the music I wrote. So, I didn't have scenes to score to. I scored the music before the scenes were written. I don't listen to Flamenco in my spare time. But I had to write a Flamenco piece for the Miles Ahead movie."

Quote 9. "When you hear me bark, that means something good happened."

Quote 10. "The NFL of music is in New York."

Quote 11. "Kanye is a genius. He's crazy. He loves music."

Quote 12. "Don't leave school for a jazz gig. Especially if education is free because of a scholarship."

Quote 13. "School is overpriced."

Quote 14. "Brooklyn is the top 4 most expensive places to live."

That's all she wrote. Here is a picture from the masterclass.