Milton Nascimento and esperanza spalding honor friendship on their new album

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Milton Nascimento and esperanza spalding recorded much of their new album from Nascimento's home in Brazil.

It was esperanza spalding’s longtime dream to make music with Milton Nascimento.

The bassist was a student at Berklee College of Music when she first became a fan of the Brazilian singer-songwriter. A friend showed her Wayne Shorter’s 1975 album Native Dancer, which features Nascimento. “I didn’t know that was an option, that sound in the cosmos,” she told NPR’s Michel Martin. Now, two decades after that introduction, she has made an album with her idol. It's called Milton + esperanza.

At 81, Nascimento’s career spans more than 60 years. With over 40 albums, the singer is a household name in his home country. And spalding has won five Grammys, including one for best new artist in 2011, beating out Justin Bieber and Drake.

Their new album includes classics from Nascimento’s catalog, new originals by spalding and covers of “Earth Song” by Michael Jackson and “A Day in the Life” by the Beatles. The collaborators on the album include singer-songwriter Paul Simon, who studied Portuguese for two weeks so he could sing the duet Nascimento wrote for him.

Much of the album was recorded at Nascimento’s home in Rio de Janeiro. “Our engineer set up microphones in the room where Milton watches TV,” spalding said. “ We brought in some mattresses from another part of the house and just made a little nook in there.”

“It was really beautiful,” said Nascimento, speaking to NPR through an interpreter, “Everyone felt comfortable. I chose some songs. She chose others. Then we chose the musicians. We started out small, but it became something much greater.”

A collaborator who was on their minds when they made the record was their mutual friend, the late Wayne Shorter. The saxophonist died in March 2023, a month before they planned to start recording. “It was a very emotional, intense time,” spalding said. “I mean, Wayne is the reason that I know Milton. Wayne is a person that we have in common. A deep friend and a deep mentor, a hero.”

They honor their mutual friend by ending the album with Shorter’s song “When You Dream.” It features singing by his widow Carolina Shorter. “She said one of the last things Wayne said to her was, ‘You have to sing. People need to hear your voice,’” spalding said. “So it also felt like a gratitude, an honoring of his wish to have his wife's voice out in the world.”

spalding says creating an album with Nascimento is one of the best experiences of her life. “I love him,” she said. “So it's a joy to do whatever I can to serve the music.”

The digital version of this story was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi. Valdemar Geo interpreted Portuguese for the radio version of this story.