Grammy-winning Esperanza Spalding Releases Radio Music Society, A Kaleidoscopic Collection From One Of The Brightest Lights In The Musical World
Release Date Set For March 19th 2012
When relative unknown singer and bassist Esperanza Spalding defied the odds and beat off competition from Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence & The Machine and Mumford & Sons to win the 2011 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, stunned music critics, fans and bloggers took to the web to express their amazement at what was seemingly one of the biggest upsets in the history of the awards.
Esperanza Spalding releases Chamber Music Society
As the news travelled around the world, pop music fans scratched their heads and furious Bieber fans vandalized Spalding's Wikipedia page, whilst those already familiar with her music revelled in the news that gave long overdue reward to an artist possessing a unique and style-spanning presence that was always destined to make her a star.
In March 2012 Spalding will release her brand new studio album Radio Music Society, her most diverse, ambitious and masterful recital yet.
The music is realized by many of the supremely gifted musicians who are part of Spalding's ever-expanding universe including hip-hop giant Q-Tip, who performs on and co-produced two tracks, jazz legends Joe Lovano, Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart, guitar heroes Jef Lee Johnson and Lionel Loueke, and an array of master vocalists including Lalah Hathaway and Gretchen Parlato.
As well as composing and directing the music on the record, Esperanza has also created, directed and edited 12 short films for each of the 12 tracks on the record, which are linked to form an hour-long feature film. This will be premiered online during January 2012 and Radio Music Society will be released with a companion audio-visual edition, available in digital and physical formats.
Born in Portland, Oregon, Esperanza Spalding grew up in a single-parent home and was both blessed and cursed with a highly intuitive learning style that often put her at odds with the traditional education system. However, the one pursuit that made sense from a very early age was music. She picked up her first instrument aged four and made such phenomenal progress that by the time she graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music aged twenty, she was immediately offered a job on the teaching board - an appointment that made her one of the youngest faculty members in the history of the college.
Her journey as a recording artist began with the 2006 release of Junjo and her 2008 follow up Esperanza became the year's best selling album worldwide by a new jazz artist.
Numerous awards and appearances followed, including support slots with the likes of Prince and The Roots, and an invitation by Barack Obama to perform at both the White House and the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony.
Radio Music Society is a companion, rather than a sequel, to Spalding's previous disc, Chamber Music Society, which garnered critical acclaim and topped jazz charts around the world.
"Originally I thought it would be fun to release a double album," she explains. "One disc with an intimate, subtle exploration of chamber works and a second one in which jazz musicians explore song forms and melodies that are formatted more along the lines of what we would categorize as 'pop songs.' Those are the two things that really interest me, and it intrigues me to think about different presentation approaches while writing each kind of song. On the pop song side, I think about listeners who aren't into jazz, but I also think about the people within my musical community who can interpret each idea best."
"Art doesn't thrive with too much analyzing and explaining," Spalding notes. "The idea of 'radio music' is very broad."
Radio Music Society is destined to expand the concept even further, not to mention the horizons of the music world's most exceptional young artist.
"She has dizzying possibilities, is prodigiously talented and has a gorgeously expressive voice" - Daily Telegraph
Esperanza Spalding Official Website
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