Esperanza Spalding - JUNJO

Limited Edition Pressing On High Quality 180g Vinyl!

Debut Album By 2011 Grammy Best New Artist!

Esperanza Spalding's debut is now available as a Limited Edition high-quality vinyl pressing. The album was listed in Best of 2010 polls for NPR, Village Voice, JazzTimes and many more. Indispensable for every fan! This collector's item showcases the star just as her career was just beginning to explode.

Esperanza Spalding is here to stay. Bassist, singer and composer, she began playing in small jazz and blues venues around her hometown of Portland, Oregon. A Berklee College of Music Graduate and Instructor, Spalding has worked with such notable artists as Michel Camilo, Dave Samuels, Regina Carter, the Boston Pops Orchestra, Pat Metheny, and Terri Lyn Carrington and Patti Austin, and has toured Mexico with Joe Lovano. She is the 2005 recipient of the prestigious Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship.

At only 21 years of age, she's most similar to what is known as a "total musician." In addition to singing and playing the bass, she is a composer and does all of her own arrangements. She also arranges her own versions of works of important contemporary composers. In Junjo, the first musical production under the direction of this American artist, Esperanza gives her touches to pieces that range from the modern jazz trio to contemporary Brazilian music, to Argentine folk music. For her, this project is a dream come true. It is her first album as well as the first production under her direction. The trio is completed with the artistry of two excellent musicians, pianist Aruán Ortiz and drummer Francisco Mela. Junjo has Esperanza's personal seal: the superb sense of time that she possesses and always succeeds in communicating to her audiences, and her great devotion to the instrument she plays.

"Subtle, sophisticated, and rhythmically seductive, Junjo is a sparkling debut." - Vibe

"Soulful songs and masterful bass playing have made Esperanza Spalding a rising star in the jazz world." - People

"She communicates her upbeat personality in everything she plays. She is definitely headed for a great career, and it will be soon." - Gary Burton, multiple Grammy winning vibraphonist

"She is simply the most promising musician I've come across in recent years. Such maturity and musicality would have been impressive enough had she been in her thirties, but she's barely twenty." - Alain Mallet, pianist of the Paul Simon Band & Phil Woods Quintet

Features:

• Limited Edition

• High-Quality 180g Vinyl LP

Musicians:

Esperanza Spalding, vocals, bass

Aruan Ortiz, piano

Francisco Mela, drums

Selections:

Side 1:

1. The Peacocks

2. Loro

3. Mompouana

4. Perazuan

Side 2:

5. Humpty Dumpty

6. Cantora de Yala

7. Junjo

8. Two Bad

9. Perazela

Recorded April 6 & 7, 2005 at PBS Studios, Westwood, MA