Serious

Esperanza Spalding
Chamber Music Society

A fast rising star of the jazz world 26-year old bass prodigy Esperanza Spalding has already played with Joe Lovano and Pat Metheny among others; as well as performing at the White House for Barack Obama, she’s also known for her amazing jazz vocalese singing and a respected bandleader. Here she premieres her new project, Chamber Music Society, which combines her effervescent jazz style with lush string arrangements in a richly textured new work.

Centuries ago, long before the advent of radio or recording technology, chamber music was the music for the masses – the music in which people from nearly every segment of society could find meaning and relevance. A decade into the 21st century, Esperanza Spalding takes a contemporary approach to this once universal form of entertainment with her new project, Chamber Music Society. Inspired by the classical training of her younger years – Esperanza creates a modern chamber music group that combines the spontaneity and intrigue of improvisation with sweet and angular string trio arrangements encompassing elements of jazz, folk and world music into the enduring foundations of classical music.

Chamber Music Society is not just for connoisseurs of classical or jazz music, but rather a place where both can find common ground. On Esperanza’s Chamber Music Society recording she is backed by drummer Terri Lynne Carrington and pianist Leo Genovese (Heads Up International August ’10). The album offers a new form of chamber music for modern times – one that brings together people of different perspectives and broadens their cultural experience, just as it did in an earlier age.

Within two years of her debut as a solo performer, Esperanza Spalding who combines the imaginative flights of a serious improviser with the musical accessibility of a pop star, has beguiled success at nearly unimaginable heights. Esperanza, Spalding’s 2008 release spent over 70 weeks on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart and became the most successful internationally selling debut in that year. Other highlights include two appearances at the White House, a Banana Republic ad campaign, among numerous awards and high profile tour dates capped by an invitation to perform at the 2010 Nobel Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway.

Watch a video about the new project here

Part of the London Jazz Festival in association with BBC Radio 3