Milton + esperanza

Bassist spalding first heard Nascimento at a dinner party when a friend put on Native Dancer, and that otherworldly falsetto still gives her chills. Admittedly, 81-year-old Milton's now husky voice is not what it once was, but in this meeting of generations interpreting his classic recordings with cover versions and a few originals, spalding's voice more than carries the heavy load. In fact, this is much more spalding's project with her intricately jazzy arrangements breathing new life into the selections. In ‘A Day in the Life’ by The Beatles, a group that hugely influenced the Brazilian collective Clube da Esquina, the orchestral crescendo that glues the two separate parts together has a free improv workover. Another cover, Michael Jackson's ‘Earth Song (feat Dianna Reeves)’, seems a bizarre choice but spalding's mellifluous arrangement highlights the drama. Paul Simon sings a passable Portuguese on ‘Um Vento Passou’, though it's the strings of the Orquestra Ouro Preto that really shine.