Robert Glasper and his Blue Note Jazz Festival are returning with a high-octane lineup set to leave Napa Valley with excitement. The Grammy Award winning polymath locked in Mary J. Blige, Nas and Chance The Rapper as this year’s headliners, with Dave Chapelle returning as the host.
From July 28-30, Glasper, the festival’s artist-in-residence, will have special guests join him, including De La Soul, Bilal, and Lalah Hathaway, along with surprise acts. The weekend will also include performances from the duo NXworries (Anderson .Paak & Knxwledge), Ari Lennox, Cordae, Gary Clark Jr, Parliament Funkadelic featuring George Clinton, Rakim and DJ Jazzy Jeff, Talib Kweli and Madlib, PJ Morton, Smino and more. Last year’s lineup boasted headliners like Chaka Khan, Black Star, and Maxwell.
“This festival represents out-of-the-box things, influencers, trailblazers — people that don’t feel the need to succumb to normality of popular music,” Glasper told Billboard last year. “More and more of those kinds of people are popping up and finding the courage to be the artist that represents that.”
In February, Glasper netted a Grammy win for best R&B album. Black Radio III trumped the competition, defeating Chris Brown (Breezy), Lucky Daye (Candy Drip), Mary J. Blige (Good Morning Gorgeous) and PJ Morton (Watch the Sun). The set also included a slew of musical all-stars, including Q-Tip, Common, Erykah Badu and Jennifer Hudson. The win sparked a social media outburst from Chris Brown, who lambasted the winner. “Who the f–k is Robert Glasper,” he wrote. Brown later apologized, and Glasper turned the insult into an act of altruism as he printed “Who the F**k is Robert Glasper” shirts to benefit a New Orleans music nonprofit.
See the full lineup for the Blue Note Jazz Festival below.
