Jazz in the limelight

Winning the 2011 Best New Artist Grammy made Esperanza Spalding immediately more visible than most jazz bassists ever get to be.

It might seem reasonable to assume she’d have been just as happy away from the limelight, but if the quality of her pop record “Radio Music Society” is any indication, it’s a good thing she was forced into it.

The indisputable virtuoso isn’t content to be the master of just one realm; tracks such as “Radio Song” and “Black Gold” are serpentine and abstract like the best jazz but have more hooks than anything on Top 40 radio.

Spalding’s voice is also at its seductive best here. As a pop outsider, she attacks the romantic lyrics of songs such as “Crowned & Kissed” with a verve that’s difficult to find in a genre so hellbent on writing the perfect love song. Spalding might have found it by accident.

If “Radio Music Society” has a weakness, it’s that jazz purists and bubblegum addicts alike will be let down. For the rest of us, it’s the sound of an immense talent flirting with a masterpiece.