Label: Concord Records, 2021
Personnel - Esperanza Spalding: bass, vocals; Aaron Burnett: saxophone; Leo Genovese: piano; Matthew Stevens: guitar; Francisco Mela: drums + guests include: Corey King: vocals, acoustic guitar; Phoelix: synth, piano, vocals; Ganavya Doraiswamy: vocals (#1,2); Wayne Shorter: saxophone (#3); Thrive Choir, and more.
Esperanza Spalding - a wonderful bassist, vocalist and fusion experimenter - releases Sonwrights Apothecary Lab, a 12-track album with healing consciousness and conceived with a team of neuroscientists, ethnomusicologists and music therapists. The combination of exuberance, refinement and some eccentricity is on display, and the musicians that surround her are outstanding. Yet, not every track does that magic. There are moments of pure genius, especially on the second half of the record, contrasting with those not so interesting during the first.
Grappling with the recent stressful times, “Formwela 1” opens the record strongly, displaying layers of vocals, clever chromatic moves and natural falsetto singing. The bass lines fuse with the lyrics, and the piano adds more color to the setting with its pendulum-like movements before the Thrive Choir take us to a final sustained note that leads directly to the ethereal “Formwela 2”.
The three tunes featuring the singer/songwriter Corey King (Formwelas 4, 5 and 6) didn’t appeal to me significantly; one of them, in which he plays acoustic guitar, verges on folk-pop. The same indifference transpired on “Formwela 3”, whose contemporary theatrical spin comes mixed with shades of jazz standards and R&B, ending up with atonal lines delivered by saxophonist Wayne Shorter and the excited piano runs of Leo Genovese.
If I didn’t always feel that positive energy during this earlier part of the journey, then I was much more impressed with the last six pieces. “Formwela 7” surprises with offbeat rock impulses; the mantric 12-beat cycle chant “Formwela 8” works as an anxiety antidote in the spiritual line of Alice Coltrane; “Formwela 10” arrives in a lovely jazzy wrap that makes it uncompromisingly sensual; and then there’s “Formwela 9”, a protective amulet in which the group fearlessly explores extravagant territories. I love the singing here, the blistering avant-garde explosions, and when saxophonist Aaron Burnett and guitarist Matt Stevens work closer together.
The record might be uneven, but no one can deny the singularity of this music.
B-
Favorite Tracks:
08 - Formwela 8 ► 09 - Formwela 9 ► 10 - Formwela 10