01 Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ but Soul
02 Sunlight
03 Endangered Species
04 Wild is the Wind
05 Ponta de Areia

Lineup
Esperanza Spalding - Electric Bass,
Double Bass, Voice
Leo Genovese - Keyboards
Ricardo Vogt - Guitar
Otis Brown III – Drums

Esperanza Spalding has emerged as a fine jazz bassist, but has also distinguished herself playing blues, funk, hip-hop, pop fusion, and Brazilian and Afro-Cuban styles as well. Born in Portland, OR in 1984, Spalding was not well served by the public school system and soon dropped out of classes to be home schooled. Returning to the public school system at 15, she encountered her first acoustic bass (she had already been playing violin for several years) and immediately took to the instrument. Soon she joined “Noise For Pretend,” an eclectic jazz and pop fusion band for which she sang and played bass. Since moving to the East Coast, she regularly works as a freelance bassist, and singer locally and internationally. Spalding has toured with Joe Lovano, performing music from his Grammy award winning album “All for You”, and Patti Austin playing music from Austin’s Grammy nominated album “For Ella”. The “for Ella” tour, which again launched in 2004 included performances in New York’s Prestigious Lincoln Center, and the Lugano Jazz Festival in Switzerland. That is to say, she is a real player. There was Esperanza Spalding playing after President Obama's acceptance speech during the presentation ceremony of his Nobel Peace Prize.

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01. Little Fly (3:33)                play
02. Knowledge Of Good And Evil (7:59)
03. Really Very Small (2:44)         play
04. Chacarera (7:28)
05. Wild Is The Wind (5:37)
06. Apple Blossom (6:03)
07. As A Sprout (0:42)
08. What A Friend (4:55)
09. Winter Sun (6:49)
10. Inutil Paisagem (4:38)
11. Short And Sweet (5:53)

Personnel: 
Esperanza Spalding: vocals and bass; 
Terri Lynne 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.

On the opening track of her much-lauded, self-titled major label debut, Esperanza (Heads Up, 2008 ), bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding covered Milton Nascimento's timeless gem, "Ponta de Areia." Rather than covering another of the singer/composer's tunes on Chamber Music Society, Spalding recruits Nascimento to perform on her own "Apple Blossoms." It's but one example of a highly intriguing set that blends her classical training with jazz, pop and soul tendencies. This might seem to be a risky endeavor, but not for Spalding, who not only keeps an open mind, but a radar-like ear that is able to absorb many sonic influences and still make them her own.

Evidence of this is "Winter Sun," another original composition that has elements of soul and jazz without too many complications. Here, she is supported solely by her trio and some multilayered backing vocals, before taking an unexpected bass solo that comes just as the tune might have headed in a pop direction. Her cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim/Aloysio de Oliveira's "Inutil Paisagem" (known in English as "If You Never Come To Me") goes far away from the beaches of Rio; instead, there is a classically-inspired duet between Spalding and vocalist Gretchen Parlato, who perform in both English and Portuguese, backed solely by the bandleader's bass.

The inclusion of strings is a plus here, enhancing the musicality of tracks including "Knowledge of Good and Evil," an up-tempo original with wordless vocals that showcases Spalding's vocal dexterity; the opening "Little Fly"; and "Apple Blossoms," where they flow around Nascimento's improvisations without interference. Also worth a few more spins are "Wild Is The Wind" and the closing "Short and Sweet," both demonstrating that Spalding will certainly be the inspiration for many music students, scholars and fans for years to come.

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1. Good Lava
2. Unconditional Love
3. Judas
4. Earth To Heaven
5. One
6. Rest In Pleasure
7. Ebony and Ivy
8. Noble Nobles
9. Farewell Dolly
10. Elevate or Operate
11. Funk The Fear
12. I Want It Now

Esperanza Spalding – bass, vocals
Matthew Stevens – guitar
Karriem Riggins - drums

Esperanza Spalding presents her latest project Emily's D+Evolution a rekindling of her childhood interest in theater, poetry and movement, which delves into a broader concept of performance. Taking a new approach to her on-stage persona, the remarkable Spalding taps into new creative energy, delivering musical vignettes inspired during a "sleepless night of full moon inspiration." As she puts it, "Emily is my middle name, and I'm using this fresh persona as my inner navigator. This project is about going back and reclaiming un-cultivated curiosity, and using it as a compass to move forward and expand. My hope for this group is to create a world around each song, there are a lot of juicy themes and stories in the music. We will be staging the songs as much as we play them, using characters, video, and the movement of our bodies." ---Editorial Reviews, amazon.com

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01. Ponta De Areia 
02. I Know You Know 
03. Fall In 
04. I Adore You 
05. Cuerpo Y Alma (Body & Soul) 
06. She Got To You 
07. Precious 
08. Mela 
09. Love In Time 
10. Espera 
11. If Thats True 
12. Samba Em Preludio

    Esperanza Spalding - electric bass, acoustic bass, vocals
    Leo Genovese - piano, Wurlitzer organ (7), Fender Rhodes piano (10)
    Jamey Haddad - percussion
    Otis Brown - drums
    Horacio Hernandez - drums (4, 8)
    Ambrose Akinmusire - trumpet (8, 11)
    Donald Harrison - saxophone (6, 11)
    Gretchen Parlato - background vocals (1, 4)

Bassist, vocalist, and composer Esperanza Spalding's eponymous release on Heads Up International is touted on the Concord Label Group's website as her debut recording. This is patently untrue. In fact, if it weren't for her actual debut , 2006's Junjo on Spain's Ayva imprint, this set may not have existed at all. Junjo showcased Spalding as a leader, playing in an acoustic trio with pianist Aruan Ortiz and drummer Francisco Mela singing wordlessly over bubbling Latin and Afro-Cuban melodies and rhythms. Though written by Brazilian legend Milton Nasciemento and featuring backing vocalists and additional percussion to the bass, piano, and drum format, Esperanza's opening track, "Ponta De Areia" resembles the sound and M.O. of the earlier album quite a bit. This is on purpose, as Spalding simply nods to one of the many places she comes from musically. The track, with its languid, nursery rhyme-like melody and beautifully understated instrumental accompaniment, gently opens the listener to an aural experience that's quite unlike anything else out there. Spalding sings in three languages here -- English, Spanish, and Portuguese -- she plays bass, does the arranging, and acts as her own producer on this wildly diverse and exceptionally well-executed set. How does a 23-year-old get all that control? Simple: she's a prodigy; she is a seasoned session player (she's worked with Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, and Patti Austin to name just three), and she's a faculty member at the Berklee College of Music.

The ambition on display on Esperanza is not blind; it's deeply intuitive, and her focus brings out the adventure on the album in all the right ways. By a lesser musician, even attempting something like this would have been disastrous. A core band consisting of pianist Leo Genovese, percussionist Jamey Haddad, and drummer Otis Brown backs Spalding. She follows the Nasciemento cut with her own fingerpopping midtempo ballad "I Know You Know," where her crystal clear contralto walks a phrasing tightrope between near scat, classic jazz, and Latin soul singing. The layers of hand percussion and knotty pianism fill the middle as her bassline and drums hold down a constant skittering thrum for the lyrics to balance on. But she can write and sing straight ballads as well. "Fall In," a seemingly simple duet where her voice over Genovese's piano are the only ornaments, is a stellar example and also displays a very sophisticated and slippery sense of wordcraft and a gorgeous melodic sensibility. "I Adore You," featuring Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez in one of his two appearances on drums, offers another example of Spalding's wordless vocalizing; it is a popping Brazilian samba-cum-rhumba with a snappy backing chorus of Brown, Gretchen Parlato, and Theresa Perez. They help her move the smoking piano and the shuffling, time-shifting drums of Hernandez on the choruses. Spalding's bass part here is anything but basic, it's startling in its rhythmic and lyric invention as it adds another harmonic counterpart to the piano and percussive textures. New Orleans saxophonist Donald Harrison performs in one of his two guest spots on the provocative and sassy jazz tune "She Got to You." With a quick, even-burning tempo, there are traces of Betty Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, and even Blossom Dearie in Spalding's phrasing. For all of the hard-driving percussion and the track's boppish tempo, it is wonderfully accessible. "Precious," played with her trio (including some nice Rhodes work by Genovese) is like a mirror image; it's lithe, new-soul melody line flirts with jazz in the arrangement but stays on the pop side of the fence. If radio would get behind this it would be a monster. "Mela" is a wailing, post-bop instrumental with Hernandez on drums and guest Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet. Check Spalding's bass solo here, it, like the tune, is a burner. In sum, Esperanza sounds like the work of a much older, more experienced player, singer, and songwriter. Spalding not only has these gifts in natural abundance but is disciplined in her execution as well. On this recording she seeks to widen her musical adventure at every turn, but she does it with such with taste, refinement, and a playful sense of humor that virtually anyone who encounters this offering will find not only much to delight in, but plenty to be amazed by as well. ---Thom Jurek, Rovi

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