Esperanza Spalding: jazz singer/bassist-- sounds kinda like Flora Purim or Minnie Ripperton

I'm sorry, did I click on the rolling "is this racist?" thread?

nothing racist about it. it's meant to be a play on baby got back. and she's a bass player. but it casually reads as baby got ass. which seems a bad way to introduce Esperanza.

Apparently she hangs with prince? He mentioned her on his recent Arsenio appearance.

yup. she plays on some of his stuff as i understand it.

her new songs are fucking insane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDrEHphZbc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LtyqeE7ZHg

oh i guess i was not able to post one of those videos. it's here: http://www.npr.org/2016/01/08/462325734/esperanza-spalding-is-letting-emily-be-emily

joni mitchell vibes on that last one

so this album is WONDERFUL and also got bnm

OBSESSED WITH THIS

ohhh?

Earth to Heaven has some pure Joni vibes. Beautiful

Holy shit, "Rest in Pleasure" - I'm getting major King Crimson flashbacks. The guitar is a bit shoegazer indie too; I dunno, like Chapterhouse or something.

Omg this album. I was going to make Hejira and KC/Yes comparisons as well.

this album sounds like fusion Janelle Monae? predictably, I love it

Ebony and Ivy is insane

Nothing constructive to add here except more breathless praise. First album in recent memory I've listened to more than once in a row (and may go for a third today). The run from "Judas" to "Rest In Pleasure" is fucking amazing.

Also, Joni + Steely Dan + King Crimson + Yes + "sorta pretentious modern jazz / r&b" sounds like an album someone tells me about in a dream and I wake up cursing the universe that no such record exists

Maybe dangerous terrain here but how does this sound on vinyl? I'm wary of modern pressings sourced from the same master as the CD but I kinda want this

Haven't listened to this (or any of her albums) yet but this Pitchfork interview is fucking great and makes me want to check her out.

that interview is so bad ass

annette peacock, guys

fuck, she sounds like harriet wheeler on "noble nobles"!

Noble Nobles reminds me of Airbag

some pure Joni vibes. Beautiful

― calstars, Saturday, March 5, 2016 5:43 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea definitely

the p4k interview w/ her is great btw

loving this record!

hehe and that no bs interview too

this album is exceptional

although, it is also exceptionally long and I can only take it in small doses

This is cool, happy to hear it's exactly as described (Joni, Yes/Crimson). Has Pitchfork ever covered her before, or is this a new thing?

want to like this so bad. it's like screaming headless torsos meets joni. some great playing and arrangements, yet it's still falling flat on me. like the production is too slick. too much funk/fusion clinic kind of playing. never really grooves. not a lot to hold onto. like the kamasi washington album, im glad this music is being made but it's just like... going through the motions or a genre exercise or something.

although, it is also exceptionally long and I can only take it in small doses

― akm, Thursday, March 10, 2016 2:13 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dude it's like 46 minutes long

xpost I don't really like the funk/fusion clinic playing/production too much, either, and the novelty of the arrangements and busyness of the vocals does get a little exhausting, imo, so I can easily see why 46 minutes could feel twice as long.

is it really only 46 minutes long? it feels longer.

tbh I could have done without the Willie Wonka song but I think the rest is perfect

whoa this is great

this thread title

xp: absolutely, this is very good except the proggy elements in the beginning which i don't like too much. she really sounds like joni's reincarnation of around "the hissing of summer lawns".

want to like this/her, and i prob need to listen to it more to be fairer, but i feel like she just has no personality to latch on to.

Saw her last night and she was just so talented and charismatic and doing her own thang it was almost uncanny. She was in character (as such), prancing around in a white jumpsuit and her goofy glasses, singing impossibly well into a headset mic and rocking what looked like a 5-string fretless. Music, per the album, was Living Colour (esp. her guitarist, who reminded me a lot, sonically, of Vernon Reid) meets Joni Mitchell. There was a stage set, a crazy "program" handed out at the start, backup singers/dancers, and she just killed it with no concern for the head-scratching it no doubt inspired.

caught her June 23 2010 with McCoy Tyner -- and Reverend and this thread came to mind immediately

really was a fantastic show (and the DJ played "Ain't No Half Steppin'" as she left the stage iirc)

Next project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAOezi2Ea0k

"This project is going to be a little different from other ones I've done. You buy a blank CD. Then over 3 days, I'll fill it with beautiful, spontaneously created music. And you can watch the whole thing unfold over Facebook Live. September 12 starting at 9 AM.

Order your blank CD now: http://found.ee/EspWeb-j

Only 7,777 copies will be available, so first come first served."

-Esperanza

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/07/jazz-star-esperanza-spalding-flutist-claire-chase-join-harvard-faculty/

I have been dying to tell ppl about this for the past week.

The Facebook Live feed has started...

http://www.facebook.com/EsperanzaSpalding/videos/10159220183305527/

New album sounding very cool!

What happened to 'first come, first served'? Does the Spotify self-destruct after 7,777 streams lol? (Not that I'm complaining either way.)

oh wait, my bad, this isn't Exposure, it's a whole new Thang:

http://www.esperanzaspalding.com/12-little-spells/

http://www.esperanzaspalding.com/home-12littlespells/

Still working through this, but "Touch In Mine" captures well what she seems to have been aiming for.

12 Little Spells is kind of a prog-pop masterpiece, no?

I like ES, she’s got the groove

I liked it a lot when I listened to it and posted to the jazz thread. Haven't come back to it but I should.

new song is incredible!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5l0Wu821Ww