Alive at the Village Vanguard
captures pianist
Fred Hersch
and vocalist
Esperanza Spalding
in an intimate yet inventively expressive duo performance. On first glance, the combination of
Hersch
(a veteran performer known for his lyrical standards work) and
Spalding
(a virtuoso bassist and singer known for her highly conceptual, genre-bending albums) may seem like an odd pairing. Yet there's an unconventional, somewhat maverick, streak running through both artists, one that balances a core respect for the jazz tradition with a desire to draw inspiration from other mediums like art, poetry, and literature. It's that vibrant combination that
explored on his
Walt Whitman
-inspired
Leaves of Grass
album and one which
brought to her own poetry-driven concept albums like
Emily's D+Evolution
. That adventurous, poetic spirit also drives
. Recorded in 2018 at the storied Greenwich Village club, the album finds the duo communing over a well-curated set of standards that they bend to their boldly expressive improvisational will. While her early work touched upon standards and bossa nova favorites,
's most recent albums (
Twelve Little Spells
and
Songwrights Apothecary Lab
) were more experimental in tone, stylistically closer to prog rock and avant-garde singer/songwriter pop. She doesn't play the bass here, choosing instead to dig deep into her vocals and use each song as a springboard to spin out wholly new lyrics and melodies that make each track her own. Similarly,
is unfettered throughout, offering extended intros and instrumental passages that spiral outward and back again with freewheeling bliss. Together, they seem to magically stumble into unexpected flights of fancy, as when
expounds upon the lyrics to "But Not for Me," analyzing and reframing lyricist
Ira Gershwin
's
Shakespearean
word choice with a gleeful sense of irony, singing "'Oh, 'Alas,' I get that one, 'hi-ho,' not so much." Or how she expounds on
Neil Hefti
Bobby Troupe
's "Girl Talk," reframing the meaning of the song on the fly with a humorous, slyly feminist point of view and bold harmonic asides that
never fails to underscore with his own colorfully wry chords. Elsewhere,
displays her lithe vocal skills, singing
Thelonious Monk
's "Evidence" in wordless vocalese, punctuating her lines with a modern tap dancer's guttural swagger as
twirls around her. Much more than simply a lively jazz standards album,
captures these two jazz kindred spirits in joyous, creative play. ~ Matt Collar