Esperanza Spalding: Chamber Music Society (2010)

Eugene Holley, Jr.

Concert/Festival Reviewer since 2007

Eugene Holley has attended the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival ten years running.

Recent articles (20 total)

Published: August 29, 2010

Esperanza Spalding: Chamber Music Society

The jazz world hasn't been the same ever since the twenty-something Esperanza Spalding—the Oregon-born, Texas-based bassist/singer/composer/educator—burst on the scene at the change of the century. Her story as a self-taught, home schooled prodigy who graduated from Berklee and became that institution's youngest instructor; who gigged with everybody from Patti Austin and Pat Metheny to Joe Lovano; and who released two critically-acclaimed CDs as a leader (the last one stayed on the Billboard jazz charts for seventy weeks), is already the stuff of legend. Her beyond-her-years musicianship, multilingual vocals, world-embracing rhythms and genres, youthful beauty and appealing stage manner, have already made her the voice of a new generation of polycultural, jazz-based musicians.

On this, her third CD, Spalding augments her global-centric moods and grooves with a string trio, along with superb and simpatico support from drummer Terri Lyn Carrington, pianist Leo Genovese and percussionist Quintino Cinalli, on eleven-tracks of originals and standards, with co-arrangements by the veteran Gil Goldstein, blurring the boundaries of jazz, world, and classical music genres. There are two to things to note here: one, to say that Spalding's powers as an instrumentalist and vocalist have grown since her last recording is an understatement. Her bass playing is more economical and expressive, and her vocals are suppler and stronger; two, although this project may be perceived as by some cynics as a calculated grab for "Third Stream" cred, it is actually a return to Spalding's classically-trained roots, growing up in Portland, where she performed in a local orchestra from the ages of five to fifteen.

Opening and closing with the plaintive, meditative "Little Fly," inspired by a William Blake poem and "Short and Sweet," a brushed-stroked selection that rings with Ravel-ian overtones, the CD is propelled by Spalding's fluid and formidable bass lines, complimented by her angelic and agile, alto-soprano voice singing lyrics and vocalese, especially on the tango-fied reading of the standard "Wild is the Wind," the folkloric, "Apple Blossom," featuring the Brazilian superstar Milton Nascimento, and an ingenious, contrapuntal vocal beat-box take on Antonio Carlos Jobim's classic, "Inutil Paisagem," with vocalist Gretchen Parlato, and sans trio and strings. The peppery "Chacarera"—named for an Afro-Argentine dance rhythm made famous by the Lalo Schifrin theme for the TV series Mission Impossible—best highlights Spalding's ability to swing on foreign-born rhythms, while "Really Very Small" showcases the leader's ease at negotiating the Latin tinge.

Given her youth, it would be premature to suggest that this superb CD represents a specific direction for Spalding (her next CD will feature radio-friendly compositions). But this mature and ambitious recording represents the limitless potential of an ever-evolving artist who can draw from any musical source on the globe, and make music that is personal, profound, unique and impassioned.

Track Listing: Little Fly; Knowledge of Good and Evil; Really Very Small: Chacarera; Wild Is the Wind; Apple Blossom; As A Sprout; What a Friend; Winter Sun; Inutil Paisagem; Short and Sweet.

Personnel: Esperanza Spalding: vocals and bass; Terri Lyn Carrington: drums; Leo Genovese: drums; Milton Nascimento: vocals (6); Gretchen Parlato: vocals (2, 10); Quintino Cinalli: percussion; Ricardo Vogt: guitar; Entcho Todorov: violin; Lois Martin: viola; David Eggar: cello.

Record Label: Heads Up International
Style: Straight-ahead/Mainstream

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Date	Venue	Tickets
Jun01	Gran Teatro Nacional New York, NY
Jun03	Teatro Nescafé Arts Santiago de Chile,
Jun05	Grand Rex Buenos Aires,
Jun07	Auditorio Parque Ibirapuera Sao Paulo,	buy
Jun08	Oi Teatro Casa Grande Rio de Janeiro,	buy
Jun09	Teatro Castro Alvez Salvador,
Jun22	Royal Theatre Victoria,	buy
Jun23	Vogue Theatre Vancouver,
Jun25	Francis Winspear Centre for Music Edmonton,
Jun26	Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts Calgary,
Jun28	The Town Hall New York, NY	buy
Jun29	Maisonneuve Theatre de la Palce des Arts Montreal,	buy
Jul04	Muziekgebbouw Frits Philips Eindhoven Eindhoven,	buy
Jul05	Festival International de Comblain-La-Tour Comblain-La-Tour,	buy
Jul07	Love Supreme East Sussex,	buy
Jul09	Gruvillage Festival Grugliasco,	buy
Jul12	THEATRE DE VERDURE Nice,	buy
Jul23	Palais Longchamp Marseille, France	buy
Jul24	Arena del mare Genova,	buy
Aug03	Fort Adams Park (Newport Jazz Festival) Newport, RI	buy
Aug04	Tanglewood Seiji Ozawa Hall Lenox, MA	buy
Aug28	Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles, CA
Aug29	Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre Salt Lake City, UT	buy
Aug31	Curaçao North Sea Jazz Festival Antillas
Mar06	Sanders Theatre Cambridge, MA	buy