MARCUS MILLER — Renaissance (2012) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Marcus Miller's career as a sideman, composer, and producer in jazz, R&B, and pop has been prolific. He's continuously pushed boundaries in order to blur and integrate genres. Renaissance is his first studio recording in five years (Free was released in 2007 in Europe and Japan, then re-released in the United States as Marcus in 2008). Renaissance's title reflects the idea that music needs a rebirth to keep up with the creative possibilities afforded by technology, and to reflect the ever-shifting, politically charged cultural landscape. The manner in which he posits this is anything but theoretical, however. Renaissance may be the most emotive offering in Miller's catalog. Groove and firepower are near constants here. Jazz-funk, R&B, rock, post-bop, club-jazz, and more come together in a wide-ranging collection that is deeply focused and expertly sequenced. Using a revolving cast whose core is alto saxophonist Alex Han, guitarist Adam Agati, and keyboardist Federico Gonzalez Peña, guests include trumpeters Maurice Brown and Sean Jones, organist Bobby Sparks, and more. Things get off to a skittering start on "Detroit," with Miller's bass riding heard over a knotty jazz-funk groove. Louis Cato's drums accent breaks in key sections, the souled-out horns highlight the choruses, and Agati's guitar nastily accents it all while Han's alto solo is a monster. The cover of "Slipping Into Darkness" melds Kris Bowers' piano and Sparks' organ with hand percussion, both trumpets, and Miller's funky reggae groove. The melody accents syncopation on the backbeat before weaving Bob Marley's and Peter Tosh's "Get Up, Stand Up" in as a logical yet surprising extension. Bowers' knotty piano solo illustrates the wide possibilities for jazz improvisation. "Jekyll & Hyde" combines alternate passages of elegant, soulful contemporary jazz with riff-driven rock as Agati and Miller complement and push one another. "Revelation" is a rumbling modal jam with funky highlights and fine soloing by Han. "Gorée (Go-ray)," with Miller on bass clarinet, is a lilting, post-bop ballad with lovely melodic interplay; it was inspired by his visit to the House of Slaves on Gorée Island, his feelings standing inside and reflecting on the horror of the slave experience. It's emotional quality contains numerous dimensions. It is a meditation on how the ends of the lives of these slaves as they knew them also birthed of the African-American experience, one of continued struggle that culturally evolved and transfromed into diverse musical forms that bore witness to tragedy but also triumph as the art created from this history has brought joy and meaning to individuals and societies across globe. Its tenderness and equanimity tells the whole story. "Cee-Tee-Eye," while a thoroughly contemporary jazz tune, pays excellent tribute to the inspiration of Creed Taylor's label. The set closer, a simple reading of "I'll Be There," showcases the bassist's gift for lyricism and understatement. Renaissance is a lofty title, but the inspired performances Miller puts on offer get very close to delivering on the ambition it promises. 
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Tracklist :
1 Detroit 5:44
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass – Marcus Miller
Drums – Louis Cato
Guitar – Adam Agati
Mixed By – David Isaac
Piano, Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Kris Bowers
Trumpet – Maurice Brown  
Written-By – Marcus Miller
2 Redemption 6:09
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass – Marcus Miller
Drums – Louis Cato
Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Frederico Gonzalez Peña
Guitar – Adam Rogers 
Mixed By – David Isaac
Trumpet – Sean Jones 
Written-By – Marcus Miller
3 February 4:15
Acoustic Guitar – Adam Rogers 
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass – Marcus Miller
Drums, Djembe – Louis Cato
Mixed By – David Isaac
Piano – Frederico Gonzalez Peña
Trumpet – Maurice Brown 
Written-By – Marcus Miller
4 Slippin' Into Darkness 9:15
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass – Marcus Miller
Drums – Louis Cato
Guitar – Adam Rogers 
Mixed By – David Isaac
Organ – Bobby Sparks
Percussion – Ramon Yslas
Piano – Kris Bowers
Trumpet – Sean Jones 
Trumpet [Muted] – Maurice Brown 
Written-By – Morris DeWayne Dickerson, Charles Miller, Harold Ray Brown, Howard E. Scott, Lee Oskar, LeRoy L. Jordan, Sylvester Allen
5 Setembro (Brazilian Wedding Song) 6:38
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass [Fretless], Bass Clarinet, Double Bass [Acoustic Bass] – Marcus Miller
Drums – Louis Cato
Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes], Piano – Frederico Gonzalez Peña
Featuring – Gretchen Parlato, Rubén Blades
Mixed By – David Isaac
Percussion – Ramon Yslas
Vocals – Gretchen Parlato, Rubén Blades
Written-By – Gilson Peranzzetta, Ivan Lins
6 Jekyll & Hyde 6:30
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass – Marcus Miller
Drums – Louis Cato
Guitar – Adam Rogers 
Mixed By – David Isaac
Organ – Bobby Sparks
Piano – Frederico Gonzalez Peña
Trumpet – Sean Jones 
Written-By – Marcus Miller
7 Interlude: Nocturnal Mist 1:16
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass – Marcus Miller
Drums – Louis Cato
Guitar – Adam Agati
Mixed By – David Isaac
Percussion – Ramon Yslas
Piano – Frederico Gonzalez Peña
Written-By – Luther "Mano" Hanes
8 Revelation 4:46
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass – Marcus Miller
Drums – Louis Cato
Guitar – Adam Agati
Mixed By – David Isaac
Percussion – Ramon Yslas
Piano – Frederico Gonzalez Peña
Written-By – Marcus Miller
9 Mr. Clean 5:01
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass – Marcus Miller
Clavinet, Organ – Bobby Sparks
Drums – Louis Cato
Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Frederico Gonzalez Peña
Guitar – Adam Rogers 
Mixed By – Bruce Miller
Trumpet – Sean Jones 
Written-By – Weldon Irvine, Jr.
10 Goreé (Go-ray) 5:38
Acoustic Guitar – Adam Rogers 
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass Clarinet, Bass – Marcus Miller
Drums – Louis Cato
Mixed By – Taka Honda
Piano – Frederico Gonzalez Peña
Written-By – Marcus Miller
11 CEE-TEE-EYE 7:39
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass – Marcus Miller
Drums, Congas – Louis Cato
Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Kris Bowers
Guitar – Adam Agati, Paul Jackson, Jr.
Mixed By – David Isaac
Trumpet – Maurice Brown 
Written-By – Marcus Miller
12 Tightrope 5:46
Alto Saxophone – Alex Han
Bass – Marcus Miller
Drums – Louis Cato
Guitar – Adam Agati
Mixed By – Taka Honda
Piano – Kris Bowers
Vocals – Dr. John
Written-By – Antwan Patton, Charles Delbert Joseph II, Janelle Monáe Robinson, Nathaniel Irvin III
13 I'll Be There 3:48
Bass – Marcus Miller
Mixed By – Taka Honda
Written-By – Berry Gordy, Jr., Bob West, Freddy Wexler, Hal Davis, Willie Hutchinson

Esperanza Spalding - Esperanza (2008) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Bassist, vocalist, and composer Esperanza Spalding's eponymous release on Heads Up International is touted on the Concord Label Group's website as her debut recording. This is patently untrue. In fact, if it weren't for her actual debut , 2006's Junjo on Spain's Ayva imprint, this set may not have existed at all. Junjo showcased Spalding as a leader, playing in an acoustic trio with pianist Aruan Ortiz and drummer Francisco Mela singing wordlessly over bubbling Latin and Afro-Cuban melodies and rhythms. Though written by Brazilian legend Milton Nasciemento and featuring backing vocalists and additional percussion to the bass, piano, and drum format, Esperanza's opening track, "Ponta De Areia" resembles the sound and M.O. of the earlier album quite a bit. This is on purpose, as Spalding simply nods to one of the many places she comes from musically. The track, with its languid, nursery rhyme-like melody and beautifully understated instrumental accompaniment, gently opens the listener to an aural experience that's quite unlike anything else out there. Spalding sings in three languages here -- English, Spanish, and Portuguese -- she plays bass, does the arranging, and acts as her own producer on this wildly diverse and exceptionally well-executed set. How does a 23-year-old get all that control? Simple: she's a prodigy; she is a seasoned session player (she's worked with Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, and Patti Austin to name just three), and she's a faculty member at the Berklee College of Music.

The ambition on display on Esperanza is not blind; it's deeply intuitive, and her focus brings out the adventure on the album in all the right ways. By a lesser musician, even attempting something like this would have been disastrous. A core band consisting of pianist Leo Genovese, percussionist Jamey Haddad, and drummer Otis Brown backs Spalding. She follows the Nasciemento cut with her own fingerpopping midtempo ballad "I Know You Know," where her crystal clear contralto walks a phrasing tightrope between near scat, classic jazz, and Latin soul singing. The layers of hand percussion and knotty pianism fill the middle as her bassline and drums hold down a constant skittering thrum for the lyrics to balance on. But she can write and sing straight ballads as well. "Fall In," a seemingly simple duet where her voice over Genovese's piano are the only ornaments, is a stellar example and also displays a very sophisticated and slippery sense of wordcraft and a gorgeous melodic sensibility. "I Adore You," featuring Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez in one of his two appearances on drums, offers another example of Spalding's wordless vocalizing; it is a popping Brazilian samba-cum-rhumba with a snappy backing chorus of Brown, Gretchen Parlato, and Theresa Perez. They help her move the smoking piano and the shuffling, time-shifting drums of Hernandez on the choruses. Spalding's bass part here is anything but basic, it's startling in its rhythmic and lyric invention as it adds another harmonic counterpart to the piano and percussive textures. New Orleans saxophonist Donald Harrison performs in one of his two guest spots on the provocative and sassy jazz tune "She Got to You." With a quick, even-burning tempo, there are traces of Betty Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, and even Blossom Dearie in Spalding's phrasing. For all of the hard-driving percussion and the track's boppish tempo, it is wonderfully accessible. "Precious," played with her trio (including some nice Rhodes work by Genovese) is like a mirror image; it's lithe, new-soul melody line flirts with jazz in the arrangement but stays on the pop side of the fence. If radio would get behind this it would be a monster. "Mela" is a wailing, post-bop instrumental with Hernandez on drums and guest Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet. Check Spalding's bass solo here, it, like the tune, is a burner. In sum, Esperanza sounds like the work of a much older, more experienced player, singer, and songwriter. Spalding not only has these gifts in natural abundance but is disciplined in her execution as well. On this recording she seeks to widen her musical adventure at every turn, but she does it with such with taste, refinement, and a playful sense of humor that virtually anyone who encounters this offering will find not only much to delight in, but plenty to be amazed by as well.

Tracklist :

1. "Ponta de Areia" (Milton Nascimento, Fernando Brant) - 5:39

2. "I Know You Know" - 3:46

3. "Fall In" - 3:57

4. "I Adore You" - 7:27

5. "Cuerpo y Alma (Body & Soul)" (Edward Heyman, Robert Sour) - 8:01

6. "She Got to You" - 4:29

7. "Precious" - 4:24

8. "Mela" - 6:57

9. "Love in Time" - 5:47

10."Espera" - 4:40

11."If That's True" - 7:33

12."Samba em Preludio" (Vinícius de Moraes, Baden Powell) - 5:11

All songs written and composed by Esperanza Spalding, except where noted

Personnel

Esperanza Spalding - electric bass, acoustic bass, vocals

Leo Genovese - piano, Wurlitzer electric piano (track 7), Fender Rhodes piano (track 10)

Jamey Haddad - percussion

Otis Brown - drums

Horacio Hernandez - drums (tracks 4 and 8)

Ambrose Akinmusire - trumpet (tracks 8 and 11)

Donald Harrison - saxophone (tracks 6 and 11)

Gretchen Parlato - background vocals (tracks 1 and 4)