Esperanza Spalding‘s latest record, Chamber Music Society, lives up to the intimate, experimental and assemblage mood alluded by the record’s title. This is no more apparent than seeing Esperanza and her band performing live.
We had the opportunity to attend the final rehearsal of the show before Esperanza and the band head out on their world tour, starting this weekend. Having only listened to Esperanza’s music and never seeing her perform, I was unsure what to expect. I’ve seen the pictures of her singing from behind or beside her large double bass but how this would translate in performance, I didn’t know.
The music is simply exquisite; Esperanza is accompanied by a string section, pianists, vocalists and a drummer. She slowly walked over to her double bass, placed her wine glass down on a stool, and began playing the instrument in way I’d never seen. She silently but intentionally focused your attention on the scene at hand and she did it with the ease of an actress or a dancer. How she manages to sing from the gut while playing a bass at a mind-numbing pace and move to the music is beyond me. She doesn’t play an instrument or sing a song; she becomes the instrument, she becomes the song she is singing. For example, Esperanza’s clarity and emotional delivery of the song “Apple Blossoms” evokes the air of an art song, an aria, or a song from a musical theater work.
The music can often be a bit heady – there are a few songs of pure scatting and vocalese and songs where the melody is muddled or not given much consideration. Emotional is the only word that comes close to describing what it is. The transitions from song to song are fluid and our attention moves to the different ensemble members, a notable example being the song “Inutil Paisagem”, when vocalist Gretchen Parlato takes her place on the stage next to Esperanza and gives a lovely performance.
Following the performance, Esperanza entertained a few questions from audience members such as “How do you define pop culture?”, “What songs do you have on your iPod?”, “What are your lyrical inspirations?”. She responded with “I don’t know”, only to then answer the question in a way we hadn’t anticipated. We learned she’s comfortable in the “pop” realm as a visitor from the jazz realm; she’s inspired by Herman Melville and other 19th century writers; she “plays” the bass, sings, and “plays” bands. She contends, who is someone to define pop culture, and who are they to define culture in the first place?
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Esperanza’s world tour starts tomorrow in Grinnell, Iowa. For all dates, click HERE.