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Analysis of Gilad Hekselman's Feauture On Smile Like That by Esperanza Spalding
Analysis of Gilad Hekselman's Feauture On Smile Like That by Esperanza Spalding
Curtis Shumate
Survey of Guitar Styles (PFSS-331-001)
13 December 2017
Gilad Hekselman
on Esperanza Spalding’s Smile Like That
Israeli guitarist Gilad Hekselman has been hot on the New York jazz scene
since his arrival in 2004. Born in 1983, he grew up learning classical piano and, at
the age of five, picked up the guitar. At eighteen he graduated from the jazz
department at the Thelma Yellin School of Arts and was the recipient of the
America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship for study abroad, leading him to the
New School in New York. He has since completed his BFA in performing arts (2008),
numerous reputable jazz clubs and festivals worldwide, released five solo albums
and collaborated with such high-profile artists as Ari Hoenig, Tigran Hamasyan,
Chris Potter, John Scofield, Aaron Parks, Jeff Ballard, Anat Cohen and Esperanza
Spalding.
Gilad is featured on the final track of Esperanza’s 2012 album Radio Music
Society, titled Smile Like That. While much of what Hekselman plays on the track is
Spalding’s written arrangement, he is given ample solo time in which he is let loose.
The result is at once flowing and angular, beautiful and aggressive and it contrasts
brilliantly with the rather subtle and inquisitive verses and choruses. The solo
section springs almost out of nowhere, releasing all of the aggressive tension
breeding under the surface of all that leads up to it. Spalding must have handpicked
fluidity. This is evident throughout, as he applies his own unique voice to his written
part as well as his improvised solo. In a simple riff that encircles the verses,
hekselman smoothly slides up a major third at the end of each measure, giving an
otherwise static, funky riff an element of fluid movement. This fluiditiy is heightened
in the verses, as he plays a riff in unison with Esperanza’s doubles bass; each
fretless sound of the bass perfectly. In the solo, he weaves his way through musical
space with long arpeggiated and chromatic lines, almost always in a legato fashion.
often uses this to play around with scale degrees or chord qualities, for example
picking the #5th, hammering on to the 7th and pulling off to the natural 5th (mm. 36,
38, 89). Another important factor in his smooth sound is his tone – dark and
this solo together. A comparison of the first and second solos shows just how much
thought – or, perhaps more likely, natural musical sense – he has put into his
contribution to this composition. The long sextuplet run occupying mm. 88-90 can
be seen as a kind of varied repeat of a similar run in mm. 37-38, this time extended.
The angular figure in mm. 36-37 is treated the same way, appearing in variation and
he plays with until the fade-out ends the song – another type of extension. This motif
can, however, be traced all the way back to mm. 34-35, or even to the very first two
notes of the solo – a hammer-on spanning a fourth from B to E (m. 30). In m. 90, he
picks up a new motif from the keyboardist, Leo Genovese, which he gives his legato
treatment – slides reminiscent of the verse riff – and instantly relates back to his
own motifs.
Hekselman’s use of rhythm in this solo adds to its overall sense of freedom,
being very playful with the time, though somehow still impeccably precise. He plays
slightly behind the beat, giving the solo a relaxed quality, even as he’s playing long
arpeggio (m. 33) the second note of which is dangerously behind the beat. At closer
inspection, this rhythm could be seen as not behind the beat, but a very precise
regular sixteenths backs up this statement (mm. 40-41). He also uses this idea
within long rising and falling phrases in both solos, here in diminution as septuplets
surrounded by sextuplets (mm. 38, 89). Another rhythmic device he uses regularly
is odd groupings within these long phrases. A long flowing phrase of three groups of
sextuplets and two groups of septuplets in the first solo is articulated in groupings
of 5-4-6-4-5-8. This is partly due to his legato technique, as he will slur together all
While it does not display the polyphonic techniques Hekselman is known for,
this feature is an excellent example of his one-line playing, rhythmic approaches and