From the first time she heard "Native Dancer," the collaborative record between American jazz giant Wayne Shorter and Brazilian legend Milton Nascimento, esperanza splading dreamed of collaborating Nascimento.
That dream became a reality when Herbie Hancock introduced Nascimento to spalding's music around 2010. The two artists duetted on a track called "Apple Blossom" and became fast friends.
Now in 2024 the duo have released a full album collaboration titled "Milton + esperanza." It's a sprawling collection of classics from Nascimento's catalog plus new music and cover songs. The duo is joined by spalding's band plus several special guests on the record including Paul Simon, Shabaka, and Carolina Shorter, the widow of Wayne Shorter.
spalding recently caught up with WUNC Music's Brian Burns to talk about the record.
This is an excerpt of an edited transcript of that conversation. You can hear the full interview by clicking the LISTEN button at the top of this post.
The first song we hear on the record is Milton's classic "Cais." Tell us about that song.
The song is perfect. The construction, the lyrics, the melody, the harmonic progression, the form. It kind of feels to me like the song itself is describing a person creating the pier, creating the ocean, creating all the things they need to be a dreamer and a lover and all the risk that comes with it.
The record closes with a beautiful version of Wayne Shorter's "When You Dream" which features Wayne's widow Carolina Shorter. How did it feel to work with Carolina?
I really feel like she's my second mom. I was in the studio in L.A. mixing "When You Dream," and I was just like, we need to have Carolina sing on this. And I texted her, "Would you sing on this? Would you sing on just the lyric part of 'When You Dream?'"
She didn't respond back right away and I was like, "Uh oh," you know, maybe I was overstepping. And then an hour later, I get this tsunami of crying emojis and hearts and shooting stars. And she's just like, "This is unbelievable. Because one of the last things Wayne said to me was, Carolina, you need to sing. People need to hear your voice."
"Milton + esperana" is out now on Concord Jazz.
