By Jim Macnie | Published January 2022
Stressing music’s therapeutic qualities is a goal both noble and lofty. Timbres, cadences and mantras are often key elements for those artists concocting treatments for the parade of ills tainting life, and of late, Esperanza Spalding has wielded them with aplomb.
With Songwrights Apothecary Lab crafting a suite of 12 fetching art-songs with curative intentions, Spalding consulted with therapists and neuroscientists to shape the program as an antidote to modern maladies. Scrutinizing it on that level is slippery, but the insightful way her decidedly non-pop song structures work to foster pop-adjacent ditties remains impressive.
Each track is deemed a “formwela” and entitled numerically. “Formwella 5” is more Reichian than Reikian, with a repeated piano pattern grabbing the ear. Number six is a whispered prayer by Spalding and Corey D King over a thrusting bass ostinato.
Spalding’s influences are many, as you’d expect from a Grammy-winning Harvard professor with a bevy of critical kudos. So flecks of prog motifs share space with folkie tangents, and the 11-minute romp in the middle of the album harkens Abdullah Ibrahim’s gentle excursions. Not sure of the record’s specific medicinal impact, but I do know I feel better when this imaginative songwright’s music is swirling inside my head.
Songwrights Apothecary Lab: Formwela 1; Formwela 2; Formwela 3; Formwela 4; Formwela 5; Formwela 6; Formwela 57; Formwela 8; Formwela 9; Formwela 10; Formwela 11; Formwela 13. (60:54)
Personnel: Esperanza Spalding, upright bass, piano, vocals; PHOELIX, Rhodes (1), vocals, piano, xylophone, synthesizer, Hammond B-3 (3); Thrive Choir, vocals (1, 2); Ganavya Doraiswamy, vocals (2); James Greeley, bone whistle (2); LaMont Hamilton, bells; Chris Sholar, electric guitar; Steve Turre, conch shells (2); Justin Tyson, drums (2, 3), percussion; Corey D King, guitar (4–6), Wayne Shorter, saxophone (3); Leo Genovese, piano (2, 7–11, 13), piano; Matthew Stevens, guitar (7–11, 13); Aaron Burnett, saxophone (7–9, 11, 13); Francisco Mela, drums (7–11, 13); Gretchen Parlato, vocals (8); Shamell Bell, Luke Titus, vocals (8).
Ordering Info: concord.com
