‘Radio Music Society’ is Esperanza Spalding’s latest album (her fourth) and is considered a companion rather than a follow up to 2010s ‘Chamber Music Society’. On this occasion, Esperanza and her band of jazz musicians are exploring the formats and melodies of pop songs in a jazz setting.
Esperanza Spalding is an accomplished jazz bassist and singer who is notable as the only jazz artist to win a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, beating other nominees Mumford and Sons, and even Justin Beiber in 2011.
So, does Esperanza’s ‘pop’ album work? The answer is definitely a yes. There are twelve songs on the album, which has a running time of slightly under an hour, meaning that some of the songs overrun the standard three minute pop format, but that is no bad thing, as here we have a band of extremely accomplished musicians who know their stuff backwards and operate comfortably within this genre. Esperanza has one of the best recent jazz voices that I’ve heard, and is not short of a good lyric or three.
Opening with ‘Radio Song’ (nothing to do with the similarly titled REM song), an upbeat number with Esperanza’s funky bass and a good horn section, this is (as the Daily Telegraph noted) ideal jazz music to come over the radio when you’re on a car journey. With its laid back groove, this should receive a lot of airplay this summer: - “Right now you need it, driving yourself through the hard times/ Traffic won't speed up, so you turn the radio on/ But it's the same old stuff that makes you yawn/ Well somehow he feels it and the DJ here at the station/ Sends sweet salvation, when he starts to play this song/ Now you can't help singin' along, even though you never heard it/ You keep singin' it wrong.”
This was a great start to the album, uplifting and a godsend to jazz and pop fans alike. ‘Land of the Free’ is another great track, a scathing indictment of American justice (I believe that this refers to the overturn of the conviction of Cornelius Dupree, who spent thirty years in prison for a crime that he didn’t commit, and one which could have been overturned years ago on the DNA evidence). This track is the sort of organ based cocktail jazz which Tom Waits can pull off so easily, but behind the jaunty music, the lyrics tell another tale: - “Finally, they've exonerated Dupree, But it cost him his parents and his wife/ His home, his life, In the land of the free/Evidently five fifths an innocent man, But the court only saw three.” This is the shortest track on the album at under two minutes long, and stops abruptly as if free speech is being silenced. This is probably the most powerful track on the album, and has a resonance that will strike a chord with almost anyone.
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‘Hold on Me’ is the sort of big band jazz which really suits Esperanza’s voice, here she uses an upright bass which gives the sort of vintage feel of smoky jazz clubs, and lyrics relating to a love affair with someone who just keeps her dangling on a string: - “I can hold my tongue for years, I don't mind
For in the night time silent I recite thousands of poems about you/ Until one of them comes true, I can hold my breath for years, I won't get blue/ On a sweet sigh from you.”
This type of song really brings to the fore the talent that Esperanza has. Whilst I’ve only concentrated on the tracks that for me had the greatest impact, there really isn’t a poor track on the album, and it's is likely to be welcomed by all sorts of people for whom jazz is an unfamiliar genre. It may be jazz, but this album rocks!
Esperanza Spalding online
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