Esperanza Spalding: Jazz Ain't Nothin' But Soul
Esperanza SpaldingDuration: 6:00
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Bassist, singer and composer Esperanza Spalding is a jazz wunderkind. After initially proving her chops with scat vocals and walking bass line, she steadily added punctuations of voices on top of horns a la neo-big band music, funk, electronics, art rock, odd meters, song poems, chanting, chamber music and more. By combining a palette of these elements on a thematic recording project, Spalding now simply "does Esperanza." Still, there is tremendous joy to be realized in listening to her early, live, hard swinging performances, such as "Jazz Ain't Nothin' But Soul." For more pleasure, compare this to Betty Carter's popular version from the '60s and the highly experimental remix by Melanie Charles.
Posted by Scott Lichtman.
