Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The American double-bassist esperanza spalding developed an early fascination with the Brazilian singer-songwriter Milton Nascimento when a friend at a dinner party played his collaboration with Wayne Shorter on the 1975 album Native Dancer. Now she teams up with the 81-year-old on a new album that revisits highlights from his songbook, with spalding singing alongside him and underpinning everything with sinuous basslines.“I dreamed,” says Nascimento, amid a woozy haze of synthesiser on an introductory track, “and when I awoke, the music was there.” This oneiric quality attaches to the album, which actively resists the groove, favouring instead an exquisite hovering equipoise close to both Coltranes.The first proper track is “Cais”, from 1972’s Clube de Esquina, a musical manifesto tougher and less whimsical than the then-prevalent tropicália. Another highlight is “Outubro”, originally from 1969. The two musicians start out singing together before the track explodes with joyful flute and synthesiser — doing the work of the strings on the original — and spalding soaring. Collaborator Paul Simon, sounding frail, duets with Nascimento on “Um Vento Passou” over a trickle of rainsticks and strings blowing in and out like thunderclouds.Covers include “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles, who were a central touchstone for musicians growing up under the repressive Fifth Brazilian Republic — to this day, their songs are integral to any concert by Gilberto Gil. This version is less weird than the original, with the loss of Ringo Starr’s stoned drag of a drum track, but the upward glissando sweep into the middle eight becomes a tumult of Aladdin Sane-style piano, followed by a ragtime holler through McCartney’s section and a euphoric wordless rise into the final verse.Less happy is “Earth Song”, Michael Jackson’s vacuity no longer disguised by pop energy — Dianne Reeves’s singing makes you miss Jarvis Cocker. The album ends with the slow nine-minute crescendo of Wayne Shorter’s “When You Dream”, featuring the voice of his widow, Carolina.★★★★☆‘Milton + esperanza’ is released by Concord
