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Next stop: Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian music legend Milton Nascimento penned “Ponta De Areia,” the languid opener to then-23-year-old Esperanza Spalding’s 2008 eponymous debut. Sixteen years later, this dynamic duo teams up on a soulful album steeped in samba. Spalding—a Grammy-winning bassist, composer, arranger and vocalist, whose albums have ranged from chamber jazz to prog rock—lends a breezy feeling to these sessions allowing the magic and the music to develop organically. At 81, Nascimento has lost much of his legendary multi-octave vocal chops, but none of his soulfulness—his now rough-hewn tenor is the perfect counterpoint to Spalding’s playfully girlish vocals. They perform a gorgeous duet on Nascimento’s classic ballad “Cais” and turn up the heat on “Late September.” Jazz artist Dianne Reeves joins Nascimento on Spalding’s haunting ballad “Earth Song.” Paul Simon pops up briefly on the plaintive “Un Vento Passou.” The album closes with “Outro Planeta,” a hypnotic hymn that deftly blends European Baroque and Brazilian Tropicalia punctuated by the duo’s banter and laughter as Nascimento observes, “Music for me is to bring together love, children, friendship, the ocean, the life.” Words to live by.
By Greg Cahill
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