Breath of Life

Woke up this morning and started my day with this song. It motivated me to come in and edit a post I started back in January but never got around to sharing. This is special.


It's not often enough that an artist comes along that gets me really excited. I'm always listening to new stuff, digging new artists, old artists I've yet to hear... but to get excited about? Not all that often.

The fact is there's so much music out and it's all so easily-accessible these days that it's impossible to come even close to hearing it all. To steal a thought from Bob Lefsetz, yes the record labels are crumbling, but in the future we'll still need filters to find the best music, (a la music blogs/websites/independent radio, etc.) And so unless I see a band live or learn about them from a personal recommendation, chances are I might not ever hear them. That is unless the hype gets so big that I reach a point where I say "Ok. What's the deal with this person?"

And so it was with the magnificently talented Esperanza Spalding. What a name, first of all... one you tend to remember. The name kept popping up on various music buzz sites to the point that eventually I felt compelled to check her out. The tipping point came when I read that she was a jazz artist and a bass player at that. I'd seen a picture of her and like everyone, I didn't expect her to be an upright bass player. Intrigued, I bought the album off iTunes after being drawn in with a few 30 sec samples, hoping it could approach the growing hype in my mind.

And then there was this song. The thing as a music lover you're always searching for, despite not knowing exactly what it is or what it sounds like. Still searching, nevertheless, and when you find it... goosebumps. This song captures what I love about music and in particular, new music and new artists. It strikes that nerve that sets good apart from sublime. [Note: I never use the word sublime, in speech or writing. But it's the first word that came to me when writing that sentence. Here's part of the googled definition "b: of outstanding spiritual, intellectual, or moral worth, c: tending to inspire awe usually because of elevated quality (as of beauty, nobility, or grandeur) or transcendent excellence." Yup, that says it beautifully, better than I even intended.]

I had assumed this song must have been the single from the record and that I was just completely late to the scene. Not so, as I couldn't find much hype on it individually and I didn't see a live version in the mass sea of Esperanza videos out there. Even so, there is certainly plenty of great youtube videos to check out, including this fantastic mini-documentary discussing how she made it and what drives her as an artist. It's 12 minutes, packed with live footage and says more about Esperanza as an artist than I possibly can in this post. It's well worth viewing if you can spare the time.

As for the "hit single" (if you can even call it that since this is Jazz we're talking about), here's a knock-out performance of "I Know You Know" from Jimmy Kimmel, June 11, 2008.







Finally, came across this excellent, detailed post about ES that while providing much of her background and some wonderful photos, also provided me with the title of this post. Breath of Life - a conversation about black music.


At a time when some of the most talented, young, singer/songwriters have lost their muse (D'angelo and Fiona Apple come to mind), to discover Esperanza Spalding and to think (and hope) that she might well be making music for the next 50 years... it's got me excited. So if you hadn't already heard, now you have no excuse.


www.esperanzaspalding.com

www.myspace.com/esperanzaspalding

Buy the CD "Esperanza" from Amazon.com