Jazz Articles about Esperanza Spalding

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Esperanza Spalding: Junjo

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
July 22, 2006

The debut recording by this 22-year-old Berklee instructor and Portland, Oregon native features Brazilian-inflected jazz in the company of Cuban bandmates, released by a Spanish record label. Put that way, Junjo sounds terribly worldly and logistically complicated, but in fact the record comes across as an intimate affair executed with a light touch.

The Brazilian accent is most discernible when Spalding accompanies her bass playing with wordless singing (except on “Cantoro de Yala," which she sings, diffidently, in Spanish). This ...