Robert Glasper and Blue Note London: Why He’s Helping Shape the Legendary Jazz Club’s First UK Home

Cover photo © Miles Bitton / Blue Note Los Angeles

Robert Glasper will open Blue Note’s first UK venue on John Coltrane’s 100th birthday — but his relationship with the new London club goes much further than opening night

When Blue Note Jazz Club opens its first UK location in London on 23 September 2026, Robert Glasper will be the artist on stage. That alone feels significant. Glasper is one of the defining musicians of a generation that has increasingly dissolved the boundaries between jazz, hip-hop, R&B and soul, making him a natural choice to introduce one of jazz’s best-known institutions to a new London audience.

But Glasper isn’t simply playing the opening night. He has also been appointed a creative ambassador for Blue Note London, with the partnership intended to help shape the culture of the new club. That makes the relationship much more interesting.

For an artist whose career has consistently been built around bringing different musical worlds into conversation with one another, Glasper’s involvement offers a clue to what Blue Note London wants to become: a jazz club rooted in the history of the music, but open to everything that has grown around it.

Blue Note Comes to London

The original Blue Note Jazz Club opened in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1981. Founded by Danny Bensusan, the club was conceived as an intimate environment in which audiences could experience major jazz musicians at close range. Over the decades, its stage has hosted artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Oscar Peterson, Lionel Hampton and many others, while the venue has also continued to present contemporary jazz, soul, hip-hop, R&B and funk.

What began in Greenwich Village subsequently developed into an international network of Blue Note venues. Now London is joining that history. Blue Note London opens on 23 September 2026, becoming the organisation’s first UK location. The club will sit beneath the St Martins Lane hotel in Covent Garden, in the heart of London’s West End.

The main performance room will have a capacity of around 250 people, with two performances scheduled each evening. A second, smaller 100-capacity space called B-Side is due to open later in the year, providing a platform for emerging UK artists. Rather than creating a large concert venue carrying the Blue Note name, the London space is being built around the intimacy traditionally associated with the club: musicians and audiences sharing the same relatively small room.

And the date chosen for its opening carries its own significance.

Opening on John Coltrane’s 100th Birthday

Blue Note London will open on 23 September 2026 — exactly 100 years after John Coltrane was born on 23 September 1926. It is an appropriate date for a new jazz venue to begin its life.

Coltrane’s influence extends far beyond the recordings he made during his lifetime. His continual experimentation with harmony, improvisation, spirituality and musical form helped expand the possibilities of modern jazz, while his work has continued to influence musicians across generations and genres. Opening a new Blue Note on his centenary therefore places the London club within a much longer history of jazz innovation.

But the choice of Robert Glasper to open it points towards the future as much as the past.

Robert Glasper Opens Blue Note London

Glasper will headline Blue Note London’s grand opening on 23 and 24 September. He will then return to the club for a further seven dates in November, extending his relationship with the venue well beyond its first week.

The opening season also demonstrates the breadth of music Blue Note London intends to accommodate. Alongside contemporary jazz, the programme reaches into R&B, hip-hop, soul and other overlapping musical traditions. Artists announced for the venue include Erykah Badu, Jamie Cullum, Nubya Garcia, Yussef Dayes, KOKOROKO and others, bringing international names together with musicians closely associated with Britain’s contemporary jazz scene.

That musical openness is exactly where Glasper fits. His career has repeatedly asked what happens when jazz musicians stop treating genre boundaries as barriers.

Why Robert Glasper Makes Sense for Blue Note London

Glasper came through jazz. Born in Houston in 1978, he developed as a pianist before building a recording career that would increasingly connect jazz improvisation with hip-hop production, R&B songwriting, soul and contemporary Black music.

His 2012 album Black Radio became a particularly important moment in that development. Rather than treating jazz and popular music as separate worlds, the project brought Glasper into collaboration with artists including Erykah Badu, Yasiin Bey, Lupe Fiasco, Bilal, Lalah Hathaway and Meshell Ndegeocello. Black Radio went on to win the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album.

That crossover has continued throughout Glasper’s career. He played keyboards across Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, including on “These Walls”, and has worked with artists spanning Erykah Badu, H.E.R., Yasiin Bey, Q-Tip, Common, Jill Scott, Bilal, Leon Bridges and many others.

The point isn’t simply that Glasper has accumulated an impressive list of collaborators. It is that collaboration has become fundamental to the way he approaches music.

Jazz, hip-hop, R&B and soul are not presented as isolated categories within his work. They are overlapping musical languages. That makes his appointment at Blue Note London particularly appropriate.

Robert Glasper as Blue Note London’s Creative Ambassador

Glasper’s involvement with the club goes beyond performing. Blue Note London has appointed him as a creative ambassador, describing the partnership as one that will help shape the culture of the new venue.

That wording matters. It would be inaccurate to suggest that Glasper has been appointed as the club’s sole programmer or that every decision about its musical direction will pass through him. What has been announced is a broader creative relationship.

Glasper himself has described the new club as an opportunity to create a space where jazz, R&B, hip-hop and the music between those traditions can meet and evolve. That idea closely reflects the way he has approached his own career.

The Blue Note name carries considerable jazz history, but jazz itself has never developed by remaining static. Improvisation, exchange and experimentation are fundamental to the music. Glasper represents a contemporary version of that principle.

London Has Already Played a Role in Glasper’s Career

There is another reason the appointment feels significant: Glasper has specifically acknowledged his relationship with UK audiences. Speaking about Blue Note London, he said that London had supported his career from very early on and expressed his respect for both the past and present of UK musical culture. That relationship is particularly relevant today.

London has developed a highly visible contemporary jazz scene in which artists routinely move between jazz, Afrobeat, electronic music, hip-hop, soul and club culture. The first Blue Note London programme reflects that environment, placing international artists alongside musicians from the UK scene. For Glasper, whose own work has consistently resisted narrow genre definitions, London provides an appropriate setting for the next chapter of the Blue Note story.

Robert Glasper, Collaboration and the Music Around Jazz

One of the clearest ways to understand Glasper’s musical world is through the people around him. His career is full of collaborations, but those collaborations are not random. They reveal the musical ecosystem he occupies.

Kendrick Lamar connects him to one of the most significant bodies of hip-hop work of the past decade. Erykah Badu and H.E.R. connect different generations of R&B and soul. Yasiin Bey reflects Glasper’s longstanding relationship with hip-hop. Musicians including Terrace Martin and Kamasi Washington demonstrate how closely his work is connected to contemporary jazz musicians who similarly move across genre boundaries. Glasper’s own catalogue sits in the middle of those relationships.

That is also why his involvement with Blue Note London feels more meaningful than simply booking a famous pianist for opening night. His career provides a model for the kind of musical exchange the venue says it wants to encourage.

From Blue Note London to ‘Been There Done That’

That same idea of understanding an artist through the music around them became important when we worked with Robert Glasper and Jeff Staple on their 12on12 release, ‘Been There Done That’. The project brings Glasper’s musical world together with Staple’s approach to art direction and design. At its centre is a double-disc vinyl featuring 12 tracks curated by Glasper.

Rather than functioning as a conventional Robert Glasper compilation, the tracklist moves through music connected to his career and collaborations. It includes Kendrick Lamar’s “These Walls”, Q-Tip’s “You”, Brittany Howard’s “Stay High”, Anderson .Paak’s “Water Fall (Interluuube)”, H.E.R.’s “Pigment” and Syd’s “Insecurities”, alongside recordings involving Glasper himself. Those selections create a broader picture of his musical environment, moving between hip-hop, R&B, soul and jazz in much the same way his own career has.

The record also includes the world premiere of “Ah Yeah (Alternate Take)” by Robert Glasper Experiment featuring Musiq Soulchild and Chrisette Michele, an alternate version previously unreleased elsewhere. Jeff Staple created the artwork and art direction for the project, while the fourth side of the standard edition contains an unscripted conversation between Glasper and Staple recorded in April 2025.

Music is curated by Robert Glasper. Art direction is by Jeff Staple. The project was created by 12on12.

Twelve Tracks as a Map of Glasper’s Musical World

The idea behind the track selection becomes particularly relevant in the context of Blue Note London. If Glasper’s role at the new club is partly about bringing different musical traditions into conversation, ‘Been There Done That’ provides another way of exploring the same instinct.

“These Walls” points towards his contribution to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. H.E.R. represents another important creative connection: Glasper, H.E.R. and Meshell Ndegeocello won the Grammy for Best R&B Song for “Better Than I Imagined”. Elsewhere, the record moves through artists including Q-Tip, Brittany Howard, Anderson .Paak, Leon Bridges, Terrace Martin and Kamasi Washington.

Taken together, the tracklist doesn’t define Glasper through a single genre. It places him inside a network.

That distinction is useful because describing Glasper simply as a “jazz pianist” is technically correct but increasingly incomplete. Jazz provides the foundation. What he has built from that foundation extends much further.

👉 Explore Robert Glasper x Jeff Staple: ‘Been There Done That’.

What Blue Note London Could Represent

There is something fitting about Blue Note arriving in London with Glasper at the piano. The original Greenwich Village club opened in 1981 with an idea built around proximity: major musicians performing in an intimate room where audiences could experience the music at close range. Forty-five years later, the London venue is attempting to carry that idea into a very different musical landscape.

Jazz has continued to evolve. Hip-hop has become a global cultural force. R&B has transformed repeatedly. London itself has produced generations of musicians who see little reason to respect rigid distinctions between those traditions.

Blue Note London’s opening programme reflects that reality. Robert Glasper does too. His role as opening artist and creative ambassador therefore says something about the kind of institution Blue Note London appears to be building: one conscious of jazz history, but interested in what happens when that history continues moving.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does Blue Note London open?

Blue Note London is scheduled to open on 23 September 2026 in Covent Garden.

Where is Blue Note London?

The club is located beneath the St Martins Lane hotel on St Martin’s Lane in Covent Garden, London.

Is Blue Note London the first Blue Note in the UK?

Yes. Blue Note London is the first UK location of the Blue Note Jazz Club network.

Why is Blue Note London opening on 23 September?

The opening date coincides with the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Coltrane, who was born on 23 September 1926.

Who is performing at the Blue Note London opening?

Robert Glasper will headline the grand opening, performing on 23 and 24 September 2026.

Is Robert Glasper playing more shows at Blue Note London?

Yes. After the September opening performances, Glasper is scheduled to return for a further seven dates in November 2026.

What is Robert Glasper’s role at Blue Note London?

In addition to being the grand-opening artist, Glasper has been appointed a creative ambassador for Blue Note London. The venue says his partnership will help shape its culture.

What is Robert Glasper x Jeff Staple ‘Been There Done That’?

‘Been There Done That’ is a limited-edition double-disc vinyl created by 12on12 with music curated by Robert Glasper and art direction by Jeff Staple. It features 12 tracks spanning Glasper’s musical world, an unreleased alternate take from Robert Glasper Experiment, and an unscripted conversation between Glasper and Staple.

Final Thoughts

Robert Glasper opening Blue Note London is significant because he represents both sides of what the venue is trying to achieve. He is deeply connected to jazz as a pianist, improviser and bandleader, but his career has never stopped at the edge of the genre. Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, H.E.R., Yasiin Bey, Q-Tip, Common and countless other collaborators have become part of a musical world in which jazz interacts constantly with hip-hop, R&B and soul.

On 23 September 2026, Glasper will bring that approach to the opening of Blue Note’s first UK club, exactly a century after the birth of John Coltrane. He will then return for seven more dates in November. More importantly, his involvement will continue through his position as creative ambassador, helping shape the culture around a venue designed to bring jazz into conversation with the music surrounding it.

For anyone seeing Glasper at Blue Note London this autumn, ‘Been There Done That’ provides another way into that story. Its twelve tracks do not simply tell you what Robert Glasper sounds like.

They help show the musical world that made Robert Glasper, Robert Glasper.