Esperanza Spalding - 12 Little Spells (2017-2018)

This album dropped last Friday, October 18th. I of course per FB's lack of a myspace-blog-subscription like setup, didn't know.

I will be checking it out though. I really liked a lot of Exposure from earlier this year.

Videos below

edit: played it once (it's all streaming on YouTube I think),

Touch in Mine, Thang and those last 3 tracks are all bangers.

Quite a good record; maybe not yet at the level of Emily's D+Evolution, but I may already enjoy it more than Exposure.

Those last 3 tracks are the proggy's really. I love it when she gets busy with the vocal layers and even lyrics. That is when her experiments really do work.

Also clearly, much better than the new Janelle Monae album and more or less wipes the floor with Kamasi-Hipster-Washington.

Order Links


1. 12 Little Spells (4:53)
2. To Tide Us Over (4:53)
3. Til the Next Full (4:17)
4. Thang (4:35)
5. Touch in Mine (4:53)
6. The Longing Deep Down (4:35)
7 You Have to Dance (3:27)
8. Now Know (4:26)
9. All Limbs Are (3:36)
10. Readying to Rise (5:07)
11. Dancing the Animal (5:07)
12. With Others (5:52)

Kamasi Washington - The Epic (2014-2015)

This is what I just posted on Facebook about this:

Is Kamasi Washington album "The Epic" jazz for Hipsters? The majority of people who are checking it out, how much actual Jazz have they ever spent time listening to?, or maybe more importantly, SEEING LIVE? I haven't listened to all that much of "The Epic" yet (some stuff on YouTube and on an All Songs Considered review the other day), but I would be pretty surprised if it compares much to any of the Dean Magraw shows I've seen at Black Dog Cafe or The Artists' Quarter (how about Red Planet's live album"Space Dust.") Or for that matter, just in terms of 2015 recordings Tigran Hamasyan new record "Mockroot."



I am looking to actual taking this whole thing in, just to see if my perception could be wrong about it. But at a minimum, this album seems like it could be another case of something getting all this hype when there are a lot of other, better, albums and artists that probably deserve even a fraction of the attention (Timbre's new album may not fall into that category anymore however, for better or for worse, given the number of ratings and ranking it is on Rateyourmusic.com's 2015 Chart)



Hipster Link #1
Hipster Link #2
Hipster Link #3
Many ratings and reviews by Hipsters (altho not all positive)