Spalding brings eclectic mix of music and moods to the stage

Esperanza Spalding's new self-titled album is a mix of genres.

Bassist, singer, bandleader, and songwriter Esperanza Spalding, 23, entered the Berklee College of Music at 16, and by the age of 20 she was the school's youngest-ever professor. As a backing musician for Joe Lovano, among others, and later as a leader of her own groups, she made a strong impression through singing along with her sinewy acoustic bass solos, almost dancing with the instrument, her Afro bobbing in time. Spalding's new self-titled album puts her voice and songs front and center in a wide-reaching amalgam of jazz, acoustic pop, and Latin American music. Thursday night at the Regattabar, she was accompanied by the marvelous Leo Genovese on keyboards and strong drummer Otis Brown, both of whom are featured on the record. Joining them was talented guitarist Ricardo Vogt. The first set was a standing-room sell-out, and the second was almost as full.

The opening number, her own "I Adore You," began with Spalding scat-singing in her appealing, unmannered soprano. The band joined in and a simple, wordless chant emerged, spelled by rhythmically intricate interludes. Vogt soloed fluidly over hyper bass and drums. Genovese contributed an incisive, sweet-and-sour piano solo. The piece ended in a long diminuendo, Spalding scatting passim.

She picked up an electric bass for her own "I Know You Know," delivering its conversational lyrics with a rapper's rapid-fire pace. The catchy song alternated loping funk verses with syncopated ska/tango choruses.

"This is the jazzy part of the show," Spalding said to introduce "Mela," which opened with the striking sound of Genovese doubling Spalding's wordless vocal on the plaintive, harmonica-like melodica. With Vogt sitting out, the trio conducted a restless, three-way musical conversation.

In tribute to Nina Simone, Spalding sang "Wild Is the Wind" to a rumbling, spacious, cinematic arrangement, with Brown wielding mallets. Her version of Milton Nascimento's "Ponta de Areia" was a floating wonder. To end the set, she tenderly sang a ballad she wrote, "Fall In," to the sole accompaniment of Genovese's spare, sensitive piano.

Finally, for an encore, Spalding staked her claim to "Body and Soul," one of jazz's central pieces since Coleman Hawkins's epochal 1939 recording. On her new album she sings the song in Spanish to an arrangement in 5/4 time. Live, to the same arrangement, she sang the lyrics in English, not so much as a dramatic interpretation of the song, but rather as a joyous affirmation of her accomplishment and potential within the music.