Robert Glasper.

Over the past decade, an exciting scene has emerged that lies at the intersection of jazz, hip-hop and neo-soul. A group of highly trained musicians have come together to form a new sound, rooted very much in urban African-American culture, but willing to embrace influences from any and all sources. These artists are at home no matter what the setting, whether its in a jazz club playing hard-nosed post-bop or backing some of the biggest MCs and soul divas of the day. At the center of this storm that includes players like Marcus Strickland and Stefon Harris is keyboardist Robert Glasper, who will be leading a cohort of these groundbreaking musicians this weekend at Bohemian Caverns.

This openness to varying styles of music comes naturally to Glasper, mainly due to his mother being a working musician.

“She worked seven days a week as a singer,” Glasper said during a recent interview with DCist. “Literally she would do a country-western gig one day, an R&B/funk gig another day, she would do a straight-ahead jazz gig the next day, she would do a Broadway gig, she would do a pop gig, you know what I mean? Needless to say, in the house there would always be something random playing.”

Glasper has not only plays acoustic jazz at a world-class level, having released three well-received albums on the legendary Blue Note label, but has also recorded or toured with the likes of J-Dilla, Bilal, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Erykah Badu and Me’shell N’degeocello. For this weekend’s sets he will lead an electric group, all of whom have worked with Glasper in a number of these settings. The ensemble will feature Casey Benjamin on saxophone and vocoder, bassist Derrick Hodge and groove master Chris “Daddy” Dave on drums.

“I knew I wanted to have a band where we could openly and freely and organically go anywhere we need to go, musically, and there would be no weak links anywhere,” said Glasper of his collaborators.