Esperanza Spalding Teases New Album with Burniss Travis on Bass

Last year, Esperanza Spalding shocked the world by creating Exposure, an album created on the spot and completely live-streamed on Facebook over 77 hours. Now she’s revealed her next album, 12 Little Spells, will be available in October with another unique release. Starting on October 7th, Spalding will release one song per day on her website and social platforms until all twelve songs are out. An EP containing all of the songs will be available on October 19th.

“‘12 Little Spells’ finds Spalding conjuring in the medium of musical creation, through an exploration of the body, human energy, and healing,” a press release states. “Working alongside Esperanza on this project are visual artist Carmen Daneshmandi, opera/theater director Elkhanah Pulitzer, wardrobe specialist Diego Montoya, and video artist Ethan Samuel Young. Each collaborator is creating key elements of ’12 Little Spells’ without hearing any music, having only the project title and spell names as inspiration.”

While Spalding is a phenomenal bassist, it appears she’ll only be handling the vocals on 12 Little Spells with Burniss Travis listed as the bassist. Travis has worked with a spread of jazz greats from Gretchen Parlato to Stefon Harris to Common and beyond. Most recently he’s been working in the Robert Glasper band August Greene. Other contributors include Matthew Stevens on guitar, Justin Tyson on drums, Aaron Burnett on saxophone, Corey King on background vocals, and Rob Schwimmer on continuum.

Spalding will be announcing a tour in support of the new works that will be recorded and released as a live album next year. No dates have been announced, but we’ll post more details as they become available.