"Saudade Dos Aviões Da Panair (Conversando No Bar)" Featuring Lianne La Havas, Maria Gadú, Tim Bernardes, Lula Galvão Released Today from Milton Nascimento and esperanza spalding’s Collaborative Album
Milton + esperanza out August 9 / Concord Records
Listen to “Saudade Dos Aviões Da Panair (Conversando No Bar)” here: https://found.ee/Milton-esperanza
Watch here: https://found.ee/Me_SaudadeYT
July 17, 2024 - - A new song from the upcoming album Milton + esperanza—a collaboration between Milton Nascimento and esperanza spalding—has been released today. "Saudade Dos Aviões Da Panair (Conversando No Bar)" features vocals from Lianne La Havas, Maria Gadú, and Tim Bernardesalongside Nascimento and spalding. Originally released by Nascimento in 1975 on his album Minas, the song reflects childhood memories and themes of innocence, change, and enduring history. The lyrics were written by Brazilian poet and longtime friend of Nascimento’s, Fernando Brant. Produced and arranged by Spalding, Milton + esperanza will be released on August 9 on Concord Records.
Listen to “Saudade Dos Aviões Da Panair (Conversando No Bar)” here: https://found.ee/Milton-esperanza
Watch here: https://found.ee/Me_SaudadeYT
“Every person that I invited to participate on this track, said almost the same thing ‘this is my favorite Milton song!’ We wanted to offer a version that felt like a village of Milton mentees gathered round him to collectively tell and illustrate anew one of his most beloved stories. I hope the listener feels as if they’re sitting amongst a group of folks gathered around a hearth with our voices and instruments, conjuring up a mysterious, enlightening, and deeply familiar tale, instilled in us after decades of sitting at the feet of our most treasured mentor and elder.” – esperanza spalding
The album was announced in May along with the release of “Outubro,” and covered enthusiastically by the NY Times, Pitchfork, The Fader, Stereogum and beyond. Since then, the duo released their collaboration with Paul Simon, “Um Vento Passou (para Paul Simon),” for which Simon learned the Portuguese lyrics. NPR Music remarked that the voices of Nascimento and spalding “sound heavenly together.” BET said that the album, based on “Outubro,” is “destined to be a remarkable project,” with WXPN adding: “This might just be the biggest collaborative project of the year.”
Milton + esperanza features 16 tracks that celebrate and reimagine Nascimento’s beloved classics, new pieces written by spalding with Nascimento in mind, and interpretations of The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life” and Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song.” Guests include Dianne Reeves, Lianne La Havas, Maria Gadú, Tim Bernardes, Carolina Shorter, Elena Pinderhughes, Shabaka Hutchings, Guinga and more. The album features spalding’s core band of Matthew Stevens (guitar), Justin Tyson and Eric Doob (drums), Leo Genovese (piano), Corey D. King (vocals, synths), and several Brazilian musicians, including Orquestra Ouro Preto, percussionists Kainã Do Jêje and Ronaldinho Silva and Lula Galvão.
Milton + esperanza sparkles with duets between these two voices, exquisite musicianship and what spalding identifies as a central theme of the album: the importance of younger generations creating with, learning from, and building new worlds with elders. A guiding spirit for the project was Wayne Shorter, whose collaboration with Nascimento, Native Dancer, was released nearly 50 years ago. “This was all about Wayne,” spalding stated in a recent interview with WRTI. “I think at the end of the day, he is that guiding light for both of us to dare and be expansive, and also go for broke.”
The genesis for this album goes back to the very first time spalding heard a Nascimento recording, at a dinner party when a friend put on Native Dancer. “I get chills even thinking about it,” she says.” “Ninety percent of things I write, I’m thinking of him. He’s a very present part of my creative imagination.” They would finally meet (thanks in part to an introduction made by Herbie Hancock) and began to collaborate, record and perform live together. In 2022, Nascimento, now 81, embarked on a farewell tour, and invited spalding to perform on a couple of shows. At dinner on the eve of her participation in Nascimento’s Boston performance, his son asked her to produce Nascimento’s next album. A dream had come true. She worked in Brazil throughout 2023 recording and producing the album.
Milton + esperanza is spalding’s first new album release since 2021's songwrights apothecary lab, which along with 2019’s 12 Little Spells, both won GRAMMY Awards (Best Jazz Vocal Album). Last year spalding released a protest song entitled “Não Ao Marco Temporal” that was recorded in Rio and addresses the Temporal Framework, an initiative in Brazil that threatens Indigenous Brazilians’ land rights and poses a major risk to the Amazon rainforest. A 5-time GRAMMY winner and 11-time nominee, spalding has previously released 8 full length albums and in addition to working with her heroes including Nascimento and Shorter, she has collaborated with Prince, Herbie Hancock, Janelle Monae, Robert Glasper, Terri Lyne Carrington and many others. As a composer her credits include writing the libretto for the opera “...(Iphigenia)” with Wayne Shorter, which premiered in 2021. She is also a philanthropist and advocate, and currently co-directs a non-profit BIPOC artist sanctuary in her hometown of Portland, OR.
spalding is also touring this year, with dates scheduled throughout 2024, as well as a 12-night residency at the Blue Note in New York City in February and March of 2025. Nascimento and spalding don’t currently plan on doing a tour to support the record; these performances feature esperanza with her band. Tickets are on sale now, see below for the full itinerary.
Pre-order: https://found.ee/Milton-esperanza
Official Artist Store (limited edition vinyl): https://found.ee/Milton-esperanzaStore
Shore Fire client page: https://shorefire.com/roster/esperanza-spalding
Esperanza website: esperanzaspalding.com
Track List:
- the music was there
- Cais
- Late September
- Outubro
- A Day in the Life
- Interlude for Saci
- Saci (featuring Guinga)
- Wings for the Thought Bird (featuring Elena Pinderhughes and Orquestra Ouro Preto)
- The Way You Are
- Earth Song (featuring Dianne Reeves)
- Morro Velho (featuring Orquestra Ouro Preto)
- Saudade Dos Aviões Da Panair (Conversando No Bar) (featuring Lianne La Havas, Maria Gadú, Tim Bernardes, Lula Galvão)
- Um Vento Passou (para Paul Simon) (featuring Paul Simon)
- Get It By Now
- outra planeta
- When You Dream (featuring Carolina Shorter)
2024 U.S. esperanza spalding Tour Dates
8/1 - Los Angeles, CA - Luckman Theatre
8/2 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
8/3 - Portland, OR - Vanport Jazz Festival
8/4 - Seattle, WA - Benaroya Hall
9/13 - Cincinnati, OH - Taft Theatre
9/14 - Indianapolis, IN - Murat Theatre
9/15 - St. Louis, MO - Music at the Intersection (Festival)
9/16 - Skokie, IL - North Shore Center for the Performing Arts
9/17 - Milwaukee, WI - Marcus Performing Arts Center
11/13 - New Orleans, LA - Orpheum Theater
11/14 - Austin, TX - Paramount Theatre
11/15 - Stillwater, OK - The McKnight Center for the Performing Arts
11/16 - Salina, KS - The Stiefel Theatre
###
For more information, please contact Chris Taillie and Casey Hansen at Shore Fire Media