the ghost notes and broad swaths of sound
that Paul Chambers laid down on “Kind of
Blue.” And then there’s her fretless electric
work, which has an energy and phrasing
reminiscent of Jaco Pastorius on “Teen
Town” and “Come On, Come Over,” with
a loaded lower-mid attack and heavily
syncopated lines that suggest the middle
ground between popping and rest-stroke.
Spalding—a mix of African American,
Welsh, Latin, and Native American ancestry—is both lovely and instantly endearing.
She’s as likely to express herself humbly as
she is to be firm about her many strengths
and her point of view. That combination is
part of what makes her latest album, Radio
Music Society, such a compelling hybrid
and such an arresting listen. Fusing Afro-Cuban, bop, chamber music, jazz vocalese,
and R&B with the dizzying chanteuse
streak of her elastic vocals, the album is
shot through with savvy lyrics that take
on real-world subjects like racial pride
and identity (“Black Gold”), the nature
of friendship (“Cinnamon Tree”), and the
The Fender Jaco Pastorius Jazz bass appears to be a good fit for Esperanza Spalding, whose chops have been compared to the legendary Jaco. Photo By Carlos Pericas, Courtesy of Montuno
I play fretless
partly because
frets defy my
capacity to
understand.
price of war (“Vague Suspicions”). And
then there’s the fact that she sings in perfect Portuguese.
If all that sounds improbably mature
and totally kick-ass for someone still in
their mid-20s, well, it is. Still, given that
Spalding is the first jazz artist ever to win
a Grammy for Best New Artist—and
the youngest instructor ever hired by her
alma mater, Berklee College of Music—it
does help cement the less-than-vague
suspicion that Spalding is something
