Robert Glasper answered the phone from a studio in New York. He was in the middle of a session but said he had 45 minutes. We used every one of them.

You have said that jazz and hip-hop are the same thing. Can you explain that?

They come from the same place. They are both Black American art forms built on improvisation, on conversation between musicians, on the idea that the performance is the composition. Hip-hop just uses a different vocabulary — samples instead of riffs, producers instead of bandleaders. But the spirit is identical.

Black Radio IV received enormous critical acclaim but no Grammy nominations. Does that frustrate you?

I stopped being frustrated by awards a long time ago. The Grammys are a lagging indicator — they recognize what was important five years ago, not what is important now. The people who understand music understand what I am doing. That is enough.

What advice would you give a young musician trying to find their voice?

Learn everything. Learn classical theory, learn jazz harmony, learn the blues, learn hip-hop production. Then forget all of it and just play. The technique should be invisible. What people hear should be you.