''Radio Music Society'' is the fourth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Esperanza Spalding Esperanza Emily Spalding (born October 18, 1984) is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, and a Soul Train Music Award. A native of Portland, Oregon, Spalding be ...

, which was released through the record label

Heads Up International Heads Up International is a jazz record label that was formed in Cleveland, Ohio. It was bought by the Concord Music Group in 2005. History The label got its name from a jazz group that Dave Love formed while attending North Texas State Universi ...

on March 20, 2012. The album earned Spalding

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

s for

Best Jazz Vocal Album The Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works (songs or albums) in the vocal jazz ...

and

Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) The Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by ...

for the track, "City of Roses".

Critical reception

''Radio Music Society'' was well received by music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 74, based on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". John Bungey of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' noted the album's "journey through

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

, balladry and

big-band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

swing", and complimented Spalding's "light, airy voice". He wrote in conclusion: "For those who have hitherto found her considerable abilities easier to admire than enjoy, this is the most convincing display yet". A review in the monthly ''Kulturspiegel'' extra of the German ''

Spiegel Spiegel is German, Yiddish, and Dutch for "mirror". More specifically, it may refer to: Publications * '' Der Spiegel'', a weekly German magazine * Der Spiegel (online), the online sibling of ''Der Spiegel'' Political * Spiegel scandal, a 1962 ...

'' magazine noted that the poppy arrangements of the songs might help the album to become successful beyond the jazz genre. Jeff Artist of ''

Okayplayer Okayplayer is an online hip-hop and alternative music website and community, described by ''Rolling Stone'' as a "tastemaker" and "an antidote to dull promotional Web sites used by most artists". The community was founded by The Roots' drummer ...

'' wrote "With her new companion LP, Radio Music Society, the young virtuoso branches out sonically, injecting her jazz roots with some modern soul and pop juice, maybe even inspiring the

Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter B ...

faithful to check in on what all the fuss is about... At just 11 tracks, this record flexes serious range, but what’s even more impressive is that it rarely sounds overextended".

Commercial performance

In the United States, ''Radio Music Society'' became Spalding's first Top 10 album. It debuted at number 10 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart and number one on the

Top Jazz Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...

chart with first week sales of 25,000 copies. The album has sold 135,000 copies in the US as of January 2016.

Track listing

Personnel

Production

*Esperanza Spalding: producer * Q-Tip: executive producer, co-producer (3, 11) *Dave Love: associate executive producer *

Terri Lyne Carrington Terri Lyne Carrington (born August 4, 1965) is an American jazz drummer, composer, producer, and educator. She has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets, and ma ...

: additional production *Dan Hallas: local production *Zulema Mejias: local production

Musicians

*Esperanza Spalding: vocals, electric and acoustic bass *

Leo Genovese Leo Genovese (born 1979) is an Argentine jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer. He has played with The Mars Volta. Life and career Genovese was born in Venado Tuerto, Argentina, in 1979.

: piano, Rhodes electric piano, keyboards (1–3, 6, 8–12), guembri (9) *Daniel Blake: saxophones, flute (1–3, 8–10) *

Darren Barrett Darren BarrettDarren Barrett at All About Jazz
Accessed October 4, 2010. ...

: trumpet (1–3, 9, 10, 12) *Jeff Galindo: trombone (1, 3, 8, 10, 12) *Terri Lyne Carrington: drums (1–3, 5, 9, 11) *

Gretchen Parlato Gretchen Parlato (born February 11, 1976) is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Esperanza Spalding, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Miller and Lionel Loueke. Pa ...

: background vocals, spoken word (1, 6, 10) *

Becca Stevens Becca Stevens (born June 14, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who draws upon elements of jazz, chamber pop, indie rock, and folk. Early life and education Stevens was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina as the youngest ...

, Justin Brown: background vocals (1, 6) *Alan Hampton, Chris Turner: background vocals (1) *Jamie Haddad: percussion (1) *Jef Lee Johnson: guitar (2, 9) *Olivia Deprado: violin (2) *Jody Redhage: cello (2) *James Weidman: organ (4) * Algebra Blessett: vocals (5) *Savannah Children's Choir: choral voices (5) *

Lionel Loueke Lionel Loueke (born 27 April 1973) is a guitarist and vocalist born in Benin. He moved to Ivory Coast in 1990 to study at the National Institute of Art. Biography Loueke grew up in what he has described as a family of poor intellectuals in the W ...

: guitar, voice (5) * Raymond Angry: organ (5) *Tivon Penicott:tenor saxophone(5) *Igmar Thomas, Corey King: trumpet (5) *

Joe Lovano Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952)"Joe Lovano." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 13. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 1994. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, May 5, 2017. is an American jazz saxophonist, alto clarin ...

: tenor saxophone (6, 13) *Ricardo Vogt: guitar (6, 8, 10) *Lyndon Rochelle: drums (6) * Janice Scroggins: piano (7) *

Billy Hart Billy Hart (born November 29, 1940) is an American jazz drummer and educator. He is known internationally for his work with Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" band in the early 1970s, as well with Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, and Quest, among others. Bi ...

: drums (7) *

Jack DeJohnette Jack DeJohnette (born August 9, 1942) is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. Known for his extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians including Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, John Abercrombie, ...

: drums (8, 10, 12) *

Lalah Hathaway Eulaulah Donyll "Lalah" Hathaway (born December 16, 1968) is an American singer. In 1990 Hathaway released her first album titled ''Lalah Hathaway''. After releasing another album, titled '' A Moment'' (1994), it debuted at number 34 on the To ...

: vocals (9) *Raydar Ellis: spoken word, sounds (10) *

Leni Stern Leni Stern (born 28 April 1952) is a German jazz guitarist and singer. Early life Stern was born Magdalena Thora, in Germany on 28 April 1952. She was interested in music from an early age, beginning piano studies at the age of six and takin ...

: background vocals (10) *Anthony Diamond: saxophone (11) *Q-Tip: vocals, glockenspiel (11) *

Gilad Hekselman Gilad Hekselman ( he, גלעד הקסלמן; born 1983) is an Israeli-born, NYC-based jazz guitarist. He has performed with Anat Cohen, Mark Turner (musician), Mark Turner, Dayna Stephens, Aaron Parks, Jeff Ballard (musician), Jeff Ballard, Joh ...

: guitar (12) * American Music Program big band (1, 7, 11) :arranged and conducted by

Thara Memory Thara Memory was a trumpeter and educator from Eatonville, Florida. He attended Alabama State University and Marylhurst University. He lived in Portland, Oregon, United States from the 1970s until his death in 2017. His daughter, Tahirah Memory, ...

:*Kama Bell: clarinet :*Renato Caranto, John Carey, Andrew Olsen, Sam Seacrest, Kyle Zimmerman: alto saxophone :*Hayden Conrad, Nicole Glover, Aaron Reihs, Adam Reihs: tenor saxophone :*Stanley Matabane: tenor and alto saxophone :*Jeff Rathbone: baritone saxophone :*Kiran Bosely, Noah Conrad, Noah Hocker, Benjamin C. McDonald, Tree Palmedo, Benjamin Seacrest: trumpet :*Stan Bock, Dan Brewster, Ian Garner, Javier Nero, Ashton Summers, Matt Warming: trombone :*Jerry Stalnaker: bass trombone

Charts

Singles

References

{{Authority control 2012 albums Esperanza Spalding albums Heads Up International albums Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album Albums produced by Q-Tip (musician)