Esperanza 2LP

Esperanza Spalding's second album, Esperanza, landed in 2008 on Heads Up International, mixing jazz, Brazilian rhythm, and soul while Spalding sang in English, Spanish, and Portuguese and held down vocals and upright bass at once. The band behind her reads like a who's-who waiting room: pianist Leo Genovese, guitarist Nino Josele, drummers Otis Brown and Horacio Hernandez, percussionist Jamey Haddad, saxophonist Donald Harrison, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, and backing vocalist Gretchen Parlato. It spent more than 70 weeks on Billboard's jazz albums chart, peaking at No. 3, two years before her Grammy-winning breakthrough with Chamber Music Society.