Junjo
Esperanza Spalding
Ayva Music AYVA036 (www.esperanzaspalding.com)
Chamber Music Society
Esperanza Spalding
Heads Up International HUI-31810-02
A shockwave went through the pop music community and a small thrill of delight was felt by a lot of jazz fans when Esperanza Spalding beat out Drake and Justin Bieber for Best New Artist at the recent Grammy Awards. Finally here was someone a) we've heard of and b) who can play something other than an iPhone. The young bass player and singer has solid and wide ranging training – she studied jazz at the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston where she went on to become the youngest faculty member at age 20. She taught herself the violin at age five when she landed a spot in the Oregon Chamber Music Society. And it all shows in her two discs “Junjo” from 2005 and 2010’s “Chamber Music Society,” for which she won the Grammy. (Spalding has a third solo album from 2008, not being reviewed here.) “Chamber Music Society” is produced by the masterful Gil Goldstein (check his work on Karrin Allyson's “Wild for You” and Boz Scaggs “Speak Low”) and the free-form improvisation that is rife throughout her debut “Junjo” is still dominant but reined in a bit and tempered by a string trio. Her singing – which was done completely without words on “Junjo” - leans toward the light classical side, without the encumbrance of actual melodies for the most part. Except for Loro, which is a brilliant vocal chord twister written by Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti, which Spalding handles with ease. The most mainstream song on her latest disc is the opening track Little Fly which is a William Blake poem Spalding has prettily set to music. The disc then ventures through a series of mostly Spalding compositions that mix percussion from a variety of musical cultures, courtesy of Terri Lyne Carrington and Qunitino Cinalli, with angular string trio arrangements and Spalding's solid acoustic bass playing. Spalding is a playful performer who stretches her considerable imagination and skills to the fullest.
