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Esperanza Shines At Playboy Jazz
15 JUN 09 JONATHAN WIDRAN
An annual weather phenomenon known as "June Gloom" is one of the great natural curiosities of life in generally sunny Southern California, and this year's grey visitor hung around so many days that it even sprinkled rain the morning of June 11, the first day of the 31st Annual Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. Almost as if on metaphorical cue, however, the long shy sun finally emerged at the start of the sparkling, explosive set by impossibly talented, stylistically eclectic vocalist and bassist Esperanza Spalding.
She mixed songs from her wonderfully eclectic Heads Up debut Esperanza -- including the fiery, rumbling and dynamic "She Got To You," whose title says it all -- with a spunky, percussive and jazzy Wayne Shorter tune. The sun and some 18,000 jazz fans, ready to party, grooved along to her rumbling funky basslines as the petite musical powerhouse effortlessly switched off from electric to an upright that was physically bigger than her body but lovingly responsive to her precision and talent. The way she plucked and caressed (and on one graceful, classical oriented tune, bowed) her upright cut an exciting visual of musical-spiritual-emotional oneness.
Ensembling brilliantly with her backing trio of guitarist Ricardo Vogt (guitar), keyboardist Leo Genovese (brilliant in creating retro-Rhodes magic) and drummer Otis Brown, Spalding also showed off her soaring, ethereal vocals, an Ella-kissed scat singing style, multiple language skills, and an equal penchant for traditional jazz, Afro-Cuban, blues, funk, and -- reminding us that she is indeed still only 24 years old -- the hip-hop cool of her own generation. She's playing a few more dates around the country, so check her out.
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She Got To You
Esperanza Spalding, from Esperanza
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Wave
Ella Fitzgerald, from At The Montreux ...
in this playlist.
