Before flying to Los Angeles for her Grammy week duties last month, Esperanza Spalding practically batted away a question about the impact of the best new artist award on her life and career.
"More attention," was her unusually succinct reply, though she explained. "Before the Grammy last year I used to say it's like being a worker ant, going back and forth to get the food, and all of a sudden someone's watching you and following you along." She held up an imaginary magnifying glass. "But now I see that the spotlight can actually directly serve the music."
That conviction courses through "Radio Music Society," her fourth album, a collection of groove-based songs, almost all originals, that is Ms. Spalding's version of a crossover pop album. At the same time its credits include dozens of her fellow jazz musicians. Bringing them on board meant a lot to Ms. Spalding, who has clung to her worker-ant affinities even as public perception, and her own fresh-faced ambitions, conspired to anoint her queen of the colony. Her utopian urge to share the spotlight sits a bit uneasily against the very singular nature of her stardom.
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