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The BBC studios at Maida Vale rest in a discreet corner of the leafy London suburb.

The large building holds a labyrinth of corridors echoing a Seventies civil service type decor. This hides the rich history of the venue where the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan have recorded. Radio 1 DJ Gilles Peterson is hosting a recording for his acclaimed Worldwide show with the jazz pianist and artist du jour, Robert Glasper.

We walk through a maze of doors, double doors and bland signage, patiently trying to find where Robert Glasper and his band are rehearsing. Finally, tucked away in a seemingly little hideaway of a studio, we find Glasper and his crew. He gives a relaxed smile and over the course of the next two hours records a mindblowing session, only a small proportion of which is broadcast. This gives a merest hint of what is to follow later in the evening.

Now at Pizza Express, like a magician he amazes the audience with the good, the brilliant and the unexpected. His burly frame, tattooed arms, brow ring and funky dreads mask his ability to first create hip hop type loops and then allow his hands to dance across the piano like a ballet dancer giving jaw dropping moments of beauty which draw breath. He is ably assisted by drummer Chris Dave who is not only a formidable jazz drummer,but with the aid of a strategically placed A4 plastic folder can perfectly replicate the sound of a hip hop drum machine.

The gig begins with Jelly’s ‘Da Beener’, from Glasper’s previous album Canvas (which ranks as my favourite album of the decade), followed by ‘J Dillalude’ (a tribute to the late, great producer J Dilla aka Jay Dee). I will choose my words carefully. The first two tunes, lasting a good thirty minutes, were phenomenal. A runaway train of exceptional music which gained momentum, only making ‘station stops’ for soft, heart warming overtures. Robert Glasper brings to the table a multitude of influences including jazz, pop and experimental rock.

Something though was needling me through the first part of the show — the words ‘experimental rock’ kept dancing in my head. And then it came to me. The night before I had watched a documentary on the “Seven Ages of Rock” and one of the comments regarding Nirvana stuck. “Nirvana could do loud (play loudly) and do quiet (play quietly).” And that is what Glasper and his band do and that is the key to their success. They can turn the amp up to 11 and rock a jazz concert with heavy, almost electronic like rhythms and gritty piano loops.

And then with a flip of coin there are delicate ripples of quiet moments — bassist Vincente Archer plucking delicate, vibrations on the bass , drummer Chris Dave softly tapping the drums and Glasper offering moments of solitude on the piano. Very, very few musicians are competent enough to do both. The rest of the set was just ‘merely’ brilliant; ‘Canvas’ and ‘Tribute’ followed the latter in dedication to Glasper’s mother.

Set two began like the first one, with an assault into music which was so pure, so incredible that you had to pinch yourself to believe it was real. A second tribute to J Dilla was offered with Chris Dave breakin’ loose on the drums. It was an amazing melange of tracks, samples, melodies and drum breaks, given the rough and ready treatment by the best band on the planet. Except even this exceptional track was not nearly as good as ‘FTB’. I am running out of superlatives…..it was a mesmerising piece of finesse.

Glasper is a musician like no other, who can bring a varied audience of well heeled diners, hip hop aficionados, jazz veterans and new school jazz heads together under an umbrella, a jazz umbrella at that, of utterly brilliant music.

This gig will be talked about in years to come in the same way people talk about seeing Miles (Davis), Herbie (Hancock), Stevie (Wonder) and Prince for the first time. In between sets, I bumped into an ever smiling Robert Glasper. “My man” he said with a big grin and gave me a firm hand shake.

“I’m looking forward to the MC-ing section” I replied, in reference to his jokey efforts earlier in the day at being the next Q-Tip.

“That’s coming later……” he smiled back. And you know what, I wouldn’t bet against it.