Esperanza Spalding (i.n.)

thank you @portlandstate for this Honorary Doctorate in Humane Arts!!!

Another song from the album is hearable now everywhere you listen!* I of course love the entire album, but I'm extra in love with how the magic and mutual love between @miltonbitucanascimento & @paulsimonofficial coalesced through this song. it's actually quite also special for me because, this is the first album I've produced for someone else. And, (with the help of my ancestors, the influence of the land, and the epic splendor of all musicians involved!) the whole thing came out quite yummy. enjoy! *(including probably also in parks and river banks...I wouldn't put it past these two magical ones to just be directly transmitting through metaphysical means by this point...)

for your listening pleasure: "Um Vento Passou" featuring Paul Simon. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 a few years back @miltonbitucanascimento wrote this song inspired by his friend @paulsimonofficial we tapped Milton's long time collaborator @marcioborgesclube to write these luscious lyrics... seemed like solstice would be a sweet time to share another little gem from the forthcoming album. (also pouring beauty through this one are: @orquestraouropreto , @shabakahutchings , @leogenovesepiano , @matthewthomaswyatt , @ericdoob with string arrangements by @edmarcolon ) more soon...

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 learning that @herbiehancock was the one who opened the way for this connection is...actually too much. gah! through Herbie and @wayneshorterofficial I came to know about the blessing of this EARTH which is @miltonbitucanascimento ... I'm swimming in deepest graaaatitude for their profound lineage carrying us all in the music. gonna be trying as long as I live to articulate and give thanks for the blessing and overwhelm (the good kind) of creating this project with the greatest and one and only Bituca. Keep your ears out tomorrow! we releasing the next song on the Solstice. love

mmm hmm.... tomorrow you can hear what I was hearing...cause: we're releasing another song tomorrow! this little window is circa April, 2023. from the studio in Rio De Janeiro, where I damn-near lived for over a week creating this album for & with @miltonbitucanascimento . can't wait for y'all to hear it allll...

thank you errrybody for all the encouragement you’ve offered up toward this project. more coming soon! from the sharing of sounds and song and hearts with @miltonbitucanascimento which continue to alter and brighten this thing called my life. Love you Bituca!! AND JUST SO YOU KNOW: Earth Green, and Sun Yellow are the limited edition vinyl colors you can pre-order. link is in theee bio y’all. much love and gratitude and freedom and healing for the peoples of P@lest !ne, Sudan, Congo, Haiti… may this music and all artistic efforts of our time be imbued with our tears of reckoning. may the love and intention in this music stabilize our nervous systems enough to stay present, stay opened-eyed, and unwavering until ceasefire is secured.

I’m so honored to be a part of this project with my dear friend and colleague @marisolnorris !!! We co-wrote a chapter about the hinterlands of music-therapy (namely: what our people been knowin and doin since the dawn of time, and being looked over and extracted from all along the way. our chapter is an inventory, invitation, and challenge to re-engage with these modalities from a relational and reciprocal orientation). But, just get the book and read all about it! (And if you do, will you send me a picture? I wanna share photos of folks reading our chapter…this is really huge for Dr. Norris and for me..and really for the world of practitioners of color working at the intersections of arts-based community wellness practices and health sciences…) THANK YOU THANK YOU @reneeflemingmusic for inviting me/us into this wondrous anthology. And CONGRATS to you for this momentous achievement! Wooo! #musicandmind #newbook #bookstagram #healthandwellness #neuroscience #neurosciences #neuroscienceresearch #neuroscienceart #neuroarts #musictherapy #musictherapylife

😭😭😭😭 thaaaank yooooouu to all the folks making decisions at these platforms to uplift and shout out about our first single from the upcoming album (hahaha…that’s a mouthful) but what I mean to say is: I know it’s individual people, tasked with listening to and vetting hundreds of new wondrous things being made and put out there … and I’m saying thank you for choosing to uplift this and shout it out. 👂🏾💙👂🏾💙👂🏾💙👂🏾💙👂🏾 @miltonbitucanascimento infinite gratitude (and I’m gonna keep saying it til my last breath) for all you are and do and done and…thank you for this invitation to dream and exist and create alongside you…😭😭😭 (and as always: permanent #ceasefirenow dammit!!!! may the song/album sounds and all our love woven all throughout it invite some spaciousness of heart and imagination to know peace is possible and to feel inspired and energized to participate in the necessary and corresponding action required to ensure and sustain said peace. 🕊️)

Rio, circa 2023 the creating and birthing of this album has been the most glorious and hilarious and challenging adventure y’all. if you haven’t already listened… well…do! 😭🕊️👂🏾 we’re so proud of this album, and so grateful to share this first little taste of “Outubro” (you can hear the rest of the song in alllll thé places yes yes yes) oh: this post is to encourage folks to pre-order the album. (link is in my bioooo) honestly, I’m just content that I was gifted with this excuse to exist, share-space and create with some of my most favoritest beings ever alll throughout the course of last year. loooove you @miltonbitucanascimento @coreydking @matthewthomaswyatt @ericdoob @leogenovesepiano @lunabeccaris @ciadostecnicos @concordrecords @revasanto 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

another little portal from Rio last December…as we were celebrating and shining into cameras about this album we had just finished. we released a song from the record yesterday! Go listen! 😭😭😭 one of my ultimate favorite songs ever, @miltonbitucanascimento ‘s “Outubro” im grateful grateful grateful for so many beings to journey with us through the music. May it energize you, and bring expansive imaginings and resiliency to move through all we’re all witnessing and moving through these months and weeks and days.

mmmkay, so…now I can confess: We made an album. it’s called ‘Milton + esperanza’ and it’s coming out soon. 😭😭😭 Here’s a sweet little window into the story behind this magical new project...made for and with the legend @miltonbitucanascimento . It’s been an indescribable joy and honor to create music with this cosmic and earthy and epic-hearted muse. A First song-taste of the album is dropping tomorrow May 15 (!!!) mmmuch gratitude for your ears and witnessing.

…also our job in the midst of it all is to continue to connect, -especially intergenerationally- co-create and deliver whatever all we can for the nourishment and joy of our imaginations, ears, hearts, and expansive sense of what more-than-what-we-currently-know is possible. this one here, the cosmic @miltonbitucanascimento embodies that and so much more. and I’ve had the adventure of a lifetime sharing time, laughs, listens, stories, and yes music (!) with him… more to share soon! (and yes, even though this post is bout music and mentorship and arts craft…still - #ceasefirenow )