Fulfilling the performance-art vision of her spirit-muses Emily, Esperanza Spalding played the music of her forthcoming album Emily's D + Evolution in concert at BRIC House in Brooklyn, NY on Thursday, March 3. WFUV and NPR Music presented a live video webstream of the performance as part of the First Listen Live series. Emily's D + Evolution marks a new sound for Spalding. Here, she picks up the electric bass (and occasionally the piano) and surrounds herself with a power trio of electric guitar and drums - a louder, proggier, weirder funk-rock direction for the jazz-trained bassist and vocalist. It's part of a broad theatrical vision for the Emily character, inspired by broad philosophical musings on resourcefulness and the nature of progress. On stage, she was surrounded by choreographed routines, a puppet closet and three backup singers dressed all in yellow. "Whether you want to see it as devolution and evolution, and the place where they co-exist without one diminishing the other, or you could barely look at it like having the tools That You need, but having to move forward, and having to keep moving, "Spalding Told NPR. "What do you do when you do not really have all the tools That You need, but you have to survive? And you need to grow and expand?" Set List "
Good Lava" 1:00 "
Rest in Pleasure" 4: 28 "
Ebony and Ivy" 10:03 "
Elevate or Operate" 18:10 "
Noble Nobles" 23:03 "
Judas" 27:24"
Farewell Dolly" 33:49 "
Funk the Fear" 35:37 "
One" 44: 10 "
Earth To Heaven" 47:55 "
Unconditional Love" 52:39
Credits: Director: Mito Habe-Evans; Producers: Saidah Blount, Patrick Jarenwattananon, Sarah Wardrop / WFUV; Stage Director: Will Weigler; Videographers: Kara Frame, Nickolai Hammar, Robert Cameron, AJ Wilhelm; Audio Engineer: Jim O'Hara / WFUV; Post-Production Editor: Nickolai Hammar; Event Production Assistant: Erin Conlon; Special Thanks: BRIC House Ballroom; Executive Director: Anya Grundmann;
Esperanza Spalding: Live at BRIC | NPR MUSIC FRONT ROW
Esperanza Spalding: Live at BRIC | NPR MUSIC FRONT ROW