Anticipation is running high inside Princeton, NJ’s historic McCarter Theatre Center auditorium this Sunday, June 2, 2024 evening as music lovers await a live performance by the acclaimed jazz artist, esperanza spalding.
esperanza spalding — who does not capitalize her name — was born in Portland, Oregon and began performing on the violin at age five. She taught herself guitar and bass and earned a scholarship to Portland State University. After transferring to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, she joined the school’s faculty at age 20 and later taught at Harvard University.
In 2006, spalding released the first of her seven studio recordings. Her third album, Chamber Music Society, was the breakthrough success that led to her winning a 2011 Grammy for Best New Artist, eclipsing other nominees including Justin Bieber, and making her the only jazz musician to ever win that award. spalding’s latest creative effort is her 2021 recording, Songwrights Apothecary Lab.
WRTI 90.1 radio host Josh Jackson welcomes tonight’s crowd and introduces spalding, 39, who takes the stage in silhouette. Picking up her acoustic bass, she begins to play and sing her introductory number, “Tuning,” under deep blue lights.
In a soft, breathy voice, spalding sings with nuance and expression. Plucking and strumming her bass, she’s joined by guitarist Matthew Stevens, drummer Eric Doob, and singer/dancers Kaylin Horgan and Tashae Udo who vocalize in silhouette as they move across the stage.
Following up with Milton Nascimento’s “Ponta de Areia,” spalding smiles as she sings in a clear, sweet tone, “Ponta de areia, ponto final/Da Bahia à Minas, estrada natural (Ponta De Areia, last stop/From Bahia to Minas, a natural road).” Accompanying herself on acoustic bass, she’s supported by guitar, drums, and background vocals on this joyful and melodic tune as lighting designer, Kate McGee’s, stage background transforms to shades of pink.
The crowd cheers, and spalding welcomes tonight’s packed house, explaining, “A spell is a magical force to activate something, and this next song is a spell dedicated to your thoracic spine.” On “12 Little Spells (thoracic spine)” spalding plays piano as she sings this ethereal and dynamic tune. With their backs to the audience, her dancers generate fluid movements before lying on the ground and rising as the piece continues with Stevens and Doob accompanying on bass and drums.
spalding continues with a “co-composed” improvised music and dance piece which has Stevens strumming guitar chords, Tashae Udo dancing, and spalding twisting and turning her vocal line to match Udo’s movements as the performers create a single mood and story.
spalding reveals, “This next one is another spell. This is for the kind of person who is always on the phone.” The dancers move as spalding sings and plays stand-up bass on “Dancing the Animal (mind),” an artistic jazz fusion piece.
On this creative work of sight and sound, the dancers’ rhythmic movements accentuate Eric Doob’s drumrolls and rimshots before spalding chants, “God’s the animal in you,” and the audience responds with avid cheers and applause.
spalding invites concertgoers to move their hips on the funky “Thang (hips).” Guitar, bass, and drums accompany Horgan and Udo as they move to the musical groove.
spalding sings with joy and soul, her voice filling up the theater, prior to laying down her bass and grabbing a mic to move and vocally improvise with the dancers as they soulfully sing, “Stride grease/For to loosen up your hip/Joints and sink into/Your thang, your thang,” to enthusiastic applause.
Channeling the sweet sound of Ella Fitzgerald, spalding performs the Latin-influnced and jazzy “I Know You Know” where the melody pinballs up and down as she cries, “You already know but I’ll sing it again/I love you babe and nothing will take me away.”
On another improvised “co-composition,” spalding plays acoustic bass and Stevens renders a sparse guitar part as the dancers create movements which are both fluid and jerky.
After announcing, “Love is its own language — we have another spell for you,” spalding and friends perform “With Others (ears).” On this slow and dissonant jazz piece, spalding plays electric bass and Doob and Stevens add drums and guitar while singing harmony to a melody which jumps and leaps as lights flash over the dancers.
spalding talks about the five senses, focusing on the sense of touch prior to announcing, “May this song elevate the deep depths of the metaphysical sense of touch.” Launching into “Touch in Mine,” spalding sings and plays electric bass. After spalding reaches out to touch a dancer, Doob and Stevens repeat, “In my touch,” while the dancers connect and move prior to separating, leaving both spalding and the crowd touched by the performance.
On a third “co-composition,” spalding sits on the floor and vocalizes as Kaylin Horgan improvises dance moves center stage.
Before her final selection, spalding relates that when she attended school, girls of color like herself were nurtured and treated like “princesses,” yet her brothers never received the same experience. As a result, she wrote her next song, “Black Gold,” for them. On this funky and melodic number, spalding cries, “Hold your head as high as you can/High enough to see who you are/Life sometimes is cold and cruel,” as she skillfully accompanies herself on electric bass.
The dancers sing backup and the audience joyfully chimes in on the “You are Black gold” refrain of this uplifting composition.
The crowd stands and cheers, and the performers bow and exit. The artists soon return and seat themselves in a semi-circle near the piano. On the folksy “Formwela 4,” Stevens plays acoustic guitar while the vocalists shine on the song’s catchy “Now we know love to get it made/You’re gonna need it that way” refrain.
Concertgoers cheer and applaud, and spalding asks, “Are there any overachievers in the house? Perfectionists? It’s addictive, but what if you could just be satisfied?” prior to acknowledging, “We’re gonna do that right now — you’re gonna sing and it will bathe you in satisfaction.”
spalding takes a few moments to teach the audience a melody and harmony to her song, “Satisfied.” While Stevens plays bass, Doob plays percussion, and spalding plays piano, audience members happily sing along on “ah” with the quintet on this infectious composition. At the conclusion, spalding and her stagemates take a bow, leaving the audience still singing the tune’s satisfying chorus.
As music lovers exit the McCarter auditorium, several comment on tonight’s performance by esperanza spalding. Exclaims Mary from Branchburg, “I thought the show was amazing!” It was beautiful, captivating, and inspirational, and it definitely encapsulated the viewer. esperanza’s voice was lovely — almost spiritual — and she’s a very precise and meticulous instrumentalist, too.”
Ned from Philadelphia insists, “esperanza’s performance tonight just filled my body. It wasn’t the lyrics — it was the total emotion of the dance combined with the singing and the playing and the instrumentation which all came together and filled me up to where I feel complete now.”
Susan from East Hampton, reveals, “esperanza spalding is one of my favorite artists — she’s so creative and talented. I’ve been following her since the beginning of her career and she was just incredible tonight!” Her husband, Wendell, concurs, adding, “This is my first time seeing esperanza live, and I was both touched and moved by what I heard and saw.”
Lastly, Bernell from Richboro, PA, asserts, “esperanza spalding was amazing; she’s so talented! She played three different instruments — piano, upright bass, and electric bass — and her vocals were outstanding. When you mix in the dancers and her band — which were phenomenal — it all added up to one incredible experience!”
To learn more about esperanza spalding, please go to esperanzaspalding.com. For information on great upcoming programming at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre Center — including Rosanne Cash with John Leventhal on October 18, The Hot Sardines on November 8, and the Twyla Tharp 60th Anniversary Tour on April 17, 2025 — please go to mccarter.org.
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