Esperanza Spalding's new album, Songwrights Apothecary Lab offers musical healing to those of us worn down by the lives that we live. William Dart looks at how it fits into the music that she's been making for just over a decade.
Still from the video to the song, 'Formwela 2' from the album Songwrights Apothecary Lab Photo: screenshot ex YouTube
Esperanza Spalding's new album, Songwrights Apothecary Lab is another massive collaboration, a project taking its lead from a one-time comment of John Coltrane’s: "If one of my friends is ill, I’d like to play a certain song and he will be cured."
The songs on Spalding’s album, each titled simply 'Formwela', are intended to achieve just that purpose.
The project comes with a dedicated website, putting forward its case in some pretty purple prose. Her intention is, we’re told, to "respectfully dip into the healing seas of music and distill a few grains of piquancy which carry the life-renewing flavour of the unfathomable ocean of human resilience".
Well, don’t let these words get in the way of the music.
I’m reminded of all the symphonic and contrapuntal strategies that lie behind some of the most popular classical music. Of course, if you understand what fugal feats Bach pulls off in some of his massive choruses, or can appreciate the inner thematic workings of a Brahms slow movement, then you are specially privileged. But music can also have a massive emotional and spiritual impact on listeners without any of this prior knowledge.
And it’s pretty much the same when you listen to an Esperanza Spalding song, even if you might never be totally clear on what we’re being dared to do.
Music Details
ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding
TITLE: Precious
ALBUM: Esperanza
COMPOSER: Spalding
LABEL: Heads Up
ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding
TITLE: Little Fly
ALBUM: Chamber Music Society
COMPOSER: Spalding
LABEL: Heads Up
ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding
TITLE: Radio Song
ALBUM: Radio Music Society
COMPOSER: Spalding
LABEL: Heads Up
ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding
TITLE: I Want it Now
ALBUM: Emily's D+Evolution
COMPOSER: Spalding
LABEL: Heads Up
ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding
TITLE: Farewell Dolly
ALBUM: Emily's D+Evolution
COMPOSER: Spalding
LABEL: Heads Up
ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding, Andrew Bird
TITLE: The Ways you Got the Love
ALBUM: Exposure
COMPOSER: Spalding
LABEL: Concord
ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding
TITLE: How To (hair)
ALBUM: 12 Little Spells
COMPOSER: Spalding
LABEL: Concord
ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding
TITLE: All Limbs Are (arms)
ALBUM: 12 Little Spells
COMPOSER: Spalding
LABEL: Concord
ARTIST: Nico Muhly, Esperanza Spalding, San Francisco Symphony/Esa-Pekka Salonen
TITLE: Throughline
ALBUM: Muhly: Throughline
COMPOSER: Muhly
LABEL: San Francisco Symphony
ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding
TITLE: Formwela 4
ALBUM: Songwrights Apothecary Lab
COMPOSER: Spalding
LABEL: Concord
ARTIST: Esperanza Spalding
TITLE: Formwela 11
ALBUM: Songwrights Apothecary Lab
COMPOSER: Spalding
LABEL: Concord
