Esperanza Spalding has been a jazz star since 2006, when she released original compositions such as “I Know You Know,” which she performed on Saturday.
Slim, petite, yet so solid, the 40-year-old musician possesses all the attributes of a star without forcing herself. A virtuoso double bassist and bassist, a singer with a powerful voice and a very pretty face, she can easily move into the borderlands of pop, using song forms and enriching them with more complex compositions and improvisations.
These forms don’t exclude more sophisticated, sometimes even daring, conceptual detours. No, the beautiful Esperanza has little to do with the avant-garde, but neither does it frequent the pre-digested forms of jazz-flavoured pop.
On Saturday evening, it didn’t feel at all like a mass show, and yet… that’s exactly what the Place des Festivals was dedicated to on Saturday, for the most important of its closing free concerts. But for such a concert to work at full capacity and leave its mark on the imagination, it needs more than what we got.
Of course, Esperanza Spalding could count on the excellent Toronto guitarist and composer Matthew Stevens, a close collaborator on stage for several years—after having been a crucial musician with trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. This Fender Telecaster enthusiast should be the subject of a solo career, given the depth of his own musical universe. Finally, the compliments to his playing are absolutely welcome at Esperanza.
The frontwoman came in a small formation (bass, drums, guitar + electro), inviting two dancers who could transform themselves into backing singers when the occasion called for it. Not sure that the choreographic effect was decisive either. By the way, are two dancers and good lighting enough for a successful closing?
Presenting jazz in mainstream events at the FIJM is an idea to be defended tooth and nail, but more thought needs to be given to audiovisual immersion to bring such an adventure to a successful conclusion.
Bravo to the audience for listening, bravo to FIJM for taking the risk. The Place des Festivals was not deserted on this last evening, but we couldn’t conclude that it was a memorable, transcendent event of the calibre of The Roots or Hiatus Kaiyote. That said… we may have been between two chairs, but we were a long, long way from mediocrity.
