Esperanza Spalding was born in the USA in 1984. She is a singer and bass player. She went to the local high school, during which time she tried out many instruments including the violin and oboe. At 16 she decided to leave school as she said she found it too easy and boring, but not before a teacher taught her a few riffs on the bass guitar, which she used at an audition and got her first paid gig! Later she went to the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied double bass. After graduating she was asked to stay on as a teacher—the youngest the college had ever had. Here she formed a jazz trio and with them recorded her first album in 2006, which was mainly instrumental. This set work is taken from her album Esperanza released in 2008. In her live shows, Spalding plays double bass, electric bass and acoustic bass guitar (seen below) which is what she plays on ‘Samba Em Preludio’ alongside a nylon-string acoustic guitar and her voice.

This is a cover of a song composed by the Brazilian virtuoso guitarist Roberto Baden Powell in 1962. The lyrics are written by the Brazilian poet, Vinicius de Moraes and was originally intended to be duet between a man and women. When Baden Powell first played the music to de Moraes for him to write the lyrics, he initially refused as he thought the music had been copied from a piece by the famous 19th century Polish composer, Chopin. He was finally persuaded that the music was original but this may be why it is called Samba Prelude as a nod to Chopin’s famous 24 Preludes for piano. Samba is a Brazilian musical style known for its energetic drumming and syncopated rhythms, which has became very popular throughout the world. This popularity has led to many variants of the style, one of which is Bossa Nova, which literally translates as ‘new trend’. It is a fusion of Brazilian Samba and Contemporary Jazz. Bossa Nova is the lazier, cooler and more lyrical version of samba and without samba’s emphasis on percussion. It borrows its rich and complex harmonies from jazz.