# Esperanza Spalding conjures 4 New Spells, and Mary Stallings pours a Little Sugar: Photos, Videos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/05/13/esperanza-spalding-conjures-4-new-spells-and-mary-stallings-pours-a-little-sugar-photos-videos/
- Published: 2019-05-13T21:59:18+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Along with new music by Ralph Peterson & The Messenger Legacy, the Mark Dresser
Seven, and a supertrio of Dave Douglas, Uri Caine and Andrew Cyrille. **

**Esperanza Spalding, “Ways Together (Shoulders)”**

Last year Esperanza Spalding again carved her own path as a recording artist, with
_12 Little Spells — _an album that initially unfurled as a series of online videos,
one day at a time. Taken as a whole, the album stretches Spalding’s purview as a
singer-songwriter, a bandleader and a conceptualist. Offering idiosyncratic insights
on human physiology and the pathways of the spirit, it appeared on some year-end
lists, including mine, where it landed at No. 13. (I was too coy to put it at 12.)

Now _12 Little Spells _has been released in physical form, with four additional 
songs (or as Spalding calls them, song-spells) — meaning that the math no longer
works, but the message has only been deepened. Spalding released a [beautifully shot music video](https://youtu.be/i21b35DtbIQ)
for the first of these bonus tracks, “Lest We Forget (Blood).” That’s one of the
best of the bunch, with a multitracked vocal part bracketing a kind of secular hymn,
steeped in sun-warped synths and slow-chiming guitar. There’s also a spoken-word
gem called “How To (Hair)” and a syncopated-funk workout called “Move Many (Joints).”

But the song that stands out among this windfall is “Ways Together (Shoulders),”
one of the prettiest, most generous and most unguarded Spalding has ever made.

It begins with what might be a touch of autobiography, as Spalding seems to recall
being raised by a single mother. She goes on to express her awestruck gratitude 
for a romantic partner who’s truly supportive, as well as sensual. “Now you run 
your hand along my shoulder,” she sings, “And all I feel is lightness.”

The song gathers texture and density as it moves, though Spalding is careful to 
keep the feeling airy. Even as the harmonic contours grow more complex, she keeps
her line and message simple. “Carrying the world between us,” goes a refrain in 
the song’s final stretch, and that phrase could imply a weight being shouldered.
But Spalding sounds entirely unburdened.

**The Mark Dresser Seven, “Ain’t Nothing But a Cyber Coup & You”**

It’s possible you will never find a less complacent musician than bassist Mark Dresser,
who has spent an entire career straining against the limitations of both his instrument
and his idiom. That rebellious spirit extends to Dresser’s ambitions as a composer-
bandleader. The latest evidence is his new album on Clean Feed, _Ain’t Nothing But
a Cyber Coup & You._

This is the second release by the Mark Dresser Seven, which has a front line of 
Nicole Mitchell on flute, Marty Ehrlich on reeds and Michael Dessen on trombone.
Pianist Joshua White provides a turbulent introduction, and later one of several
full-tilt solos. Also feeding the intensity are drummer Jim Black and violinist 
Keir GoGwilt — along with a title that, as Dresser puts it, is about the “reality-
horror-show of corruption, malice, xenophobia and class warfare” in our cultural
moment. Still, there’s élan as well as alarm in this music; at the very least, it
conveys the message that these artists aren’t about to go down without a fight.

**Ralph Peterson & The Messenger Legacy, “Children of the Night”**

Art Blakey was a mentor and role model to drummer Ralph Peterson, who has devoted
the last 35 years to meeting his high musical standard. The Messenger Legacy is 
Peterson’s most direct gesture: a repertory band featuring alumni of Blakey’s Jazz
Messengers, with the underlying conviction that its music is eternal. The band’s
new double album, Legacy: Alive Vol. 6 at the Side Door, will release on May 20 —
Peterson’s 57th birthday, as it happens — on the Onyx Productions label.

[[

Recorded last October, the album features trumpeter Brian Lynch, saxophonists Bobby
Watson and Bill Pierce, pianist Geoffrey Keezer and bassist Essiet Essiet. All are
in spectacular form on a version of “Children of the Night,” premiering here. (The
song, which originally appeared on Blakey’s 1961 album _Mosaic_, is an early classic
by Wayne Shorter — who later recorded it himself, in quite a different arrangement,
for the 1995 album _High Life._)

**Dave Douglas/Uri Caine/Andrew Cyrille, “Curly”**

_Devotion_, the latest Greenleaf Music release, is credited to three brilliant musicians:
trumpeter Dave Douglas, pianist Uri Caine, and drummer Andrew Cyrille. Whether on
the sanctified title track or a piece like “Miljøsang,” their efforts as an improvising
trio strive toward an indivisible whole. But the album’s opener stakes out different
territory, with just Caine and Cyrille in a playful push-pull exchange.

[[

Caine begins the track in a pugilistic 12/8 polyrhythm, before shifting into a steadier
gear. But with Cyrille for a conversational partner, he knows he can duck out of
the pocket without losing a step. There’s a great deal of kinetic energy in the 
track — even when, at around 2:30, the tempo opens up and relaxes for a spell. It’s
not hard to picture Douglas in the control room, nodding and smiling at this summit,
as he waits his turn.

**Mary Stallings, “Sugar”**

The estimable Bay Area jazz singer Mary Stallings will turn 80 this year — a startling
fact, not least because of the vibrancy that still resides in her voice, a welcoming
alto that can either toll like a bell or settle into a purr. Her new album, _Songs
Were Made to Sing_, is a fine vehicle for that voice, as well as a reminder of her
priorities, not just as a jazz singer but also as a song stylist.

The first available track from the album is “Sugar,” which of course was the title
track of a 1970 CTI album by tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine. In her version,
Stallings takes a laid-back approach to phrasing the melody, singing lyrics by Ted
Daryll. As on the rest of the album, she has expert backing from pianist David Hazeltine,
saxophonist Vincent Herring, bassist David “Happy” Williams, and drummer Joe Farnsworth.
That rhythm section will be fully intact for an album-release engagement at Smoke
Jazz & Supper Club, this Thursday through Saturday.

![Esperanza Spalding during her tour for '12 Little Spells' last fall](https://i0.
wp.com/www.wbgo.org/sites/wbgo/files/styles/medium/public/201905/_images_uploads_gallery__47A6913.
jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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