Chamber Music Society
(Heads Up International Records)

Beyond all of the hype and attention regarding her looks or playing for the President or Nobel Prize ceremonies, or Prince, Esperanza Spalding is an artist of immense depth in a mad love affair with music that not even lofty accolades or occasions seem to equate. Her latest and much-anticipated recording, Chamber Music Society, is a further testament to this supposition and to her brilliance as bassist, singer, arranger and producer. Spalding enlisted the talents of Gil Goldstein to arrange strings and co-produce most of the album’s 11 tracks, nine of which she wrote. Their collaboration is a series of magical events that fit together in a colorful aural mosaic. Her wonderfully interwoven duet with the great Milton Nascimiento on “Apple Blossoms” is one such piece in the tapestry, as is her lilting exchange with vocalist Gretchen Parlato on Jobim’s “Intuil Paisagem”. Other guests on the project include drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, cellist David Eggar, percussionist Quintino Cinalli and pianist/keyboardist Leo Genovese. This is an exquisitely beautiful work of a rare and singular artist whose passion for the language of music is inescapably infectious.

Tracks: Little Fly, Knowledge of Good and Evil, Really Very Small, Chacarera, Wild Is The Wind, Apple Blossom, As A Sprout, What A Friend, Winter Sun, Intuil Paisagem, Short and Sweet.

Website: http://www.esperanzaspalding.com