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Product Description
Review
After the breakthrough of 2010’s Chamber Music Society, the album which saw bassist-vocalist Esperanza Spalding grab a Best New Artist Grammy as Justin Bieber’s publicists wondered, “Who’s she?” comes the tricky business of, “What’s next?”
Jazz snobs might already be turning up noses and closing down ears at a musician tainted by mainstream accolades, but Spalding was touring with saxophone colossus Joe Lovano a few months after waltzing off with the headline-making statuette. So everybody would do well to avoid a rush to premature judgment. In any case, as she showed on her 2008 album Esperanza, she really has her heart in that hallowed place in the 70s when soul, funk, jazz and Latin sounds liberally intertwined to break down the barrier between highbrow and pop sensibilities in African-American music.
She likes songs as well as solos. Her guiding spirits are Stevie Wonder and Wayne Shorter, both of whom she covers here. Hence there is no end of chordal finesse, finely wrought melodies, subtle but nonetheless hard-edged rhythmic pulsation, and above all a glowing sound canvas – electric piano colours à la Innervisions are dominant. Spalding is too able a musician to botch this template, so the obvious enquiry is: does she bring sufficient personality to the table to avoid being derivative?
For the most part, yes. There are times when the sources of inspiration are perhaps just too telegraphic, but a piece such as Cinnamon Tree, with its swish countermelody of hauntingly low, grainy strings has a subtle lyricism similar to what can be heard on Spalding’s auspicious 2006 debut Junjo, while a rollicking, densely layered reprise of Shorter’s sadly neglected gem Endangered Species shows a pleasing degree of lateral thinking. Furthermore, a quite sprawling list of star collaborators – the aforesaid Lovano, drummer Jack Dejohnette, and guitarist Lionel Loueke among others – ensures a high standard of execution.
While some may accuse Spalding of playing safe, the 27-year-old has produced quality material at this still early stage of her career. We know that she has talent as abundant as her Afro. The essential question is: what will it grow into?
--Kevin Le Gendre
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Product Description
New 2012 album from Grammy Award winning jazz bassist & vocalist.Includes a bonus digital download featuring a music video for every track on the album.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Love it. These tracks strike just the right notes. (Note: Fellas, if you want something mellow in the background while you're taking care of business, you can't do much better than this! ;) )
6 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Five HUGE Stars! Another major milestone achievement for bassist, singer, composer, arranger, and leader Esperanza Spalding! She seems to be all over these days, singing at the White House and the Academy Awards, fronting her own groups at festivals, winning jazz polls, performing with legendary jazz personages like Joe Lovano and Terri Lyne Carrington, and she shocked the music world becoming the first Jazz artist to win the "Best New Artist" Grammy in 2010. Following up her well-received Chamber Music Society, she expands her universe with this amazing "Deluxe" package of music CD, detailed liner notes with song lyrics, and a spellbinding one-hour video of "Radio Music Society-The Movie" that weaves the songs into visual stories. Esperanza plays both upright acoustic and electric bass. The star-studded cast that includes, among others, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart on drums, Gretchen Parlato, Algebra Blesset, and Lalah Hathaway on vocals, and Joe Lovano on tenor sax. This is marvelous music that combines jazz, R&B, soul, and funk, sung magnificently by Ms Spalding backed by "American Music Society" groups of up to 12 musicians. All songs are uniformly excellent, but the 'best of the best' includes the pure funky beauty of "Black Gold", a superb cover of Stevie Wonder's "I Can't Help It" with tenor sax titan Joe Lovano in solo and support, the shocking ending of the beautiful "The Land of The Free", the torch song "Hold On Me" reinforces the fact that she is already one of the best jazz vocalists around, and a lovely hip treatment of Wayne Shorter's "Endangered Species" with her own lyrics is now the definite version of this song. Produced and mostly arranged by Esperanza herself, this is a magnificent musical and video achievement. Bravo, Esperanza Spalding! My Highest Recommendation! Five AMAZING Stars (CD+DVD: 14 tracks: Time: Music- 61 mins: 35 secs; Video-1 hr: 06 mins:27 secs.)
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