It's Dilla Time: Robert Glasper

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HIGHLY TOUTED PIANIST ROBERT GLASPER has one of the most distinct sounds in modern jazz. His touch is light and his lyricism lush, but he's also harmonically adventurous without being dissonant.

Glasper also had the unique looks to match his piano playing: an eyebrow ring and a shock of long dreadlocks. While the metal loop still pokes out above his right peeper, the locks are nowhere to be found.

"They're gone, baby," Glasper said. "I just wanted a change. I had them for 8 or 9 years," so some friends came over and convinced him to chop them off, just like that. "They didn't really mean that much to me."

While the down-to-earth Glasper is not the sort for ceremony, he does believe in paying tribute to the people who matter most to him. He closes his new CD, "In My Element," with "Tribute," an elegant ode to his deceased mother, and tips his hat to pianist Mulgrew Miller on the punchy "One for 'Grew."

On "J Dillalude" he gives a musical shout-out to hip-hop producer J Dilla, who died Feb. 10, 2006. The song begins with a phone message from rapper Q-Tip telling Glasper to "play some Dilla joints, like, trio style," but the song is composed of snippets of live jams by Glasper and his triomates, drummer Damion Reid and bassist Vincente Archer, smoothly segued together into a cut-and-paste tapestry.

"You'd rarely heard JD beats on the radio because he was so dope and gutter with his [stuff]," said Glasper, who also produces hip-hop under a pseudonym he won't reveal and can often be found performing with rapper Mos Def and avant-R&B singer Bilal.

Glasper also celebrates another favorite, Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage," which he also did on his 2004 debut, "Mood." But this time the integration of Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place" into the Hancock classic is more pronounced.

"It was under the radar [on 'Mood'] — just enough to where I wouldn't get sued," Glasper said. "On this album, 'Maiden Voyage' is just the first 16 bars or something. Then after that, it's just Radiohead. … Jazz musicians love chords changes and different time signatures, and Radiohead songs have those. They're very jazz friendly."

But so is Dilla, Glasper said. "He's the equal to Radiohead."

» Kennedy Center, Terrace Gallery, 2700 F St. NW; Fri., 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., sold out; 202-467-4600. (Foggy Bottom-GWU)

Photo by Jessica Chornesky