Upright-bass prodigy Esperanza Spalding was barely out of her teens when she dropped her first CD, Junjo, a stunningly sophisticated yet playful set of acoustic trio jazz: rubbery bass, piano, drums and sexy Latin melodies harking back to the Seventies Brazilian jazz of Flora Purim. For her second disc, 2008's Esperanza, she added hints of funk and hip-hop. Chamber Music Society finds Spalding stretching herself a bit too thin, pulling together everything from a Broadway-like duet ("Apple Blossom," with Milton Nascimento) to scat-heavy, string-and-percussion excursions ("Chacerera"). But her talent is undeniable. The chamber setting provides a feathery pillow for moody tracks like "Little Fly," William Blake's poem set to lovely bass and strings.

“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"