Esperanza Spalding, Chamber Music Society (Heads Up). The contrarian impulse is to briskly walk away from hype about the latest sensation du jour, but critical duty says, listen anyway. In Spalding’s case, I’m glad I listened. She is an accomplished bassist with depth of tone, penetrating timbre and good note choices. Her singing has clarity and lightness. She is consistently in tune. Spalding writes and arranges well. With a small string ensemble, piano, drums and percussion, she interprets William Blake, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Dmitri Tiomkin and several pieces of her own. Her duet with Gretchen Parlato on Jobim’s “Inútil Pasagem” is a triumph of intricate simplicity. One with Milton Nascimento in “Apple Blossoms” has a lovely blend of their voices but bogs down in an awkward narrative lyric, one flaw in a captivating CD.
CD: Esperanza Spalding
July 30, 2010 By
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