Bilal Fearless with Glasper Quartet in Montreal

Texan pianist Robert Glasper was the grateful guest of an Invitation series run at this year’s Montreal Jazz Festival, notwithstanding his pullout of an engagement with Mos Def last year and his relative youth (most Invitation honorees have more mileage). He began his three-night stand in trio with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Chris Dave, telescoped in for a duo with Terence Blanchard, then expanded to quartet with Philadelphian singer Bilal, who’s featured on Glasper’s cross-genre Blue Note album Double Booked.

Unfortunately I myself was double-booked for the first two nights, but heard his original “Festival” and his take on Herbie Hancock’s “I Have A Dream” in the quartet setting. Alas, I wasn’t as enamored of Casey Benjamin’s playing as the enthusiastic crowd at Gesu. A little “smooth” or cliche initially, he did develop interesting textures and ideas in later choruses. I stayed for the dramatic entrance of Bilal, who began a bravura treatment of “In A Sentimental Mood” with a low, audacious first note sung deep into the mic. From there he sprang into the falsetto range and at times reminded me of Little Jimmy Scott. I managed to collar Bilal in the intermission of the Keith Jarrett trio concert later, and it was corroborated: His dad used to take him to check out Scott when he was a kid. Bilal said the Duke Ellington tune was intended to “get the audience wet” before what followed, and given the fearlessness and originality of his ballad rendition (Glasper played lovely close-key, double-tempo fills with a Bill Evans touch), I wished I’d stuck out the set.