Year: 2008
Record Label: Heads Up
Style: Various Jazz Styles
Review: There’s a new kid on the jazz block, Esperanza Spalding, an innovative and challenging acoustic bassist/vocalist/composer who brings a new meaning to finesse, class, and sweet serenity as viewed through the lens of jazz. Here on her debut, self-titled album, Esperanza, the 23-year old personifies the Spanish definition of her name, hope...hope in the form of what today’s creative youth have to offer to a genre so rich in diversity, expression, and boldness.
Demonstrating an obvious penchant for straight-ahead jazz and world influences, she glides through this album with such grace, as is evidenced in cuts like “I Know You Know.” Her vocals are fresh, pure, and alluring. They only serve to enhance who she is and what she brings to bear on the jazz world, not that her notable skills on acoustic bass need any complement.
This young lady’s brief history is chock full of intrigue. A musical prodigy since her childhood in Portland, Oregon, the young virtuoso enrolled at Berklee College of Music at age 16 and not only excelled there but eventually became the youngest professor in the school’s history. Quite an achievement, most would certainly agree. Before finishing school, she had already landed coveted touring gigs and recording projects with luminaries like Patti Austin, Pat Metheny, and Joe Lovano. All of this has obviously provided Spalding with the confidence she exudes and sets her on solid ground with steady footing.
The album is a mellow and well-defined project with definition and professionalism laced throughout, from tunes like the opener, “Ponta de Areia,” a cover of the tune originally performed by Wayne Shorter, through the 5/4 time signature interpretation of “Cuerpo y Alma” (“Body & Soul”), all the way through the closer, “Samba Em Preludio.”
Armed with an invigorating sense of straight-ahead jazz intermixed with some world exoticism and alluring vocals, Esperanza Spalding hits the ground running, and Heads Up has done well to nab this young talent.
Tracks: Ponta de Areia, I Know You Know, Fall In, I Adore You, Cuerpo y Alma (Body & Soul), She Got To You, Precious, Mela, Love In Time, Espera, If That's True
Record Label Website: http://www.headsup.com
Artist's Website: http://www.esperanzaspalding.com
Reviewed by:
Ronald Jackson
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