(Reprinted from the September 2024 issue of Downbeat magazine. Photo: Concord Records)
The first meeting of minds between bassist/singer esperanza spalding and Milton Nascimento was in 2010, when the music legend appeared on spaldings’s third-stream marvel, Chamber Music Society (Concord). On their shared track, “Apple Blossom,” spalding and Nascimento sing in unison, across a distance in vocal range and quality: She’s high and angelic; he’s deep and earthy. The spot where these two meet recalls Nascimento’s confab with Wayne Shorter on the latter’s Native Dancer (Columbia), spalding’s inspiration for her own confab with the Brazilian master.
Spalding and Nascimento revisit their compelling pairing on Milton + esperanza (Columbia), 16 tracks that spalding recorded in Brazil throughout 2023. The record gives special attention to some Nascimento’s classics, including the moody, synth-set “Outubro”; a charming orchestral version of “Morro Velho”; and the gently swaying “Um Ventro Passou” (featuring a cameo by Paul Simon, singing in Portuguese).
Adding to the thrill, spalding’s originals stretch the album’s palette beyond the familiar: Listen to her extraordinary vocal doubling of the flute on “Wings for the Thought Bird,” her fantastic melody-writing on “Get It By Now,” or the soulful interplay between vocal elements on the snippet “Late September.” She also reconfigures some pop classics in intriguing ways—Lennon & McCartney’s “A Day In The Life” as a slowly building duet with Nascimento, and Michael Jackson’s grave “Earth Song,” a moving plaint by singer Dianne Reeves and Nascimento with a choral/string backdrop.
In and among these full tracks, interpolations of off-air chats and musical sketches act as segues between the two artists’ complementary visions. The strongest tie between them, however, lies in the final track, Wayne Shorter’s “When You Dream,” here in an extended version that frees up the time and melodic rendering of the original. Carolina Shorter guests, and spalding is at her interpretive best on this one.
Milton + esperanza: the music was there; Cais; Late September; Outubro; A Day in the Life; Interlude for Saci; Saci; Wings for the Thought Bird; The Way You Are; Earth Song; Morro Velho; Saudade Dos Aviões Da Panair (Conversando No Bar); Um Vento Passou; Get It By Now; outra planeta; When You Dream. (1:00:46)
Personnel: Milton Nascimento, vocals; esperanza spalding, bass, vocals; Matthew Stevens, guitar; Justin Tyson, drums; Eric Doob, drums; Leo Genovese, piano; Corey D. King, vocals, synths; Kainã Do Jêje, percussion; Ronaldinho Silva, percussion; Lula Galvão, guitar; Guinga, guitar; Elena Pinderhughes, flute (8); Dianne Reeves, vocals (10); Lianne La Havas, vocals (12); Maria Gadú, vocals (12); Tim Bernardes, vocals (12); Lula Galvão, guitar (12); Paul Simon, vocals (13); Carolina Shorter, vocals (16); Orquestra Ouro Preto (8. 11).