I was taken aback by the title of Esperanza Spalding’s latest offering, Chamber Music Society. So when I sat down to listen, I was expecting a left turn from Spalding’s self-titled jazz solo debut of 2008, which was one of my Top 5 albums of that year.

Three string players are indeed included here, added to Spalding’s doublebasse, and they underpin all of the tunes on the album. But she retains her Latin leanings in a jazz setting, an enchanting fusion of glorious melody, infectious rhythms and inspired musicisianship. All of the string arrangements, meticulously written and executed, are collaborations between Spalding and Gil Goldstein.

The album is also more of a showcase for Spalding’s fluid voice, with its extended range in the upper registers, and her accomplished bass playing for someone so young, 26. Many of her compositions are written sans lyrics, which at once frees the singer to explore more complicated melodies and imbues the songs with her natural scatting ability.

One with lyrics opens the album and is a 3-minute marvel consisting of voice, bass and strings. A delicate, lilting melody embraces lyrics written by the 19th century poet-artist William Blake on Little Fly. From Blake’s Songs Of Experience, it captures just the right touch of simplicity and vulnerability.

Knowledge Of Good And Evil is a tour de force of playing and melody sung without lyrics. It also introduces keyboard player Leo Genovese, who is an intricate part of all the proceedings with his complimentary playing on acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes. Other highlights include Really Very Small, an uptempo delight in 7 with layered vocal harmonies; the beautiful Genovese composition Chacarera; Wild Is The Wind, Spalding’s arrangement of the Dimitri Tiomkin tune with lyrics by Ned Washington; Spalding’s brooding What A Friend; Winter Sun, a vocally rich original with a funky, Latin basic track; and the closing Short And Sweet, an appropriate bookend to Little Fly.

There’s more. She duets vocally with the great Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento on Apple Blossom, another Spalding tune. It seems fitting as she opened her self-titled album with Nascimento’s classic Ponta De Areia. And she duets and arranges the vocals on Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Inutil Pasisagem with Gretchen Parlato, delivering an unexpected and individualistic approach to one of the master’s memorable tunes.

The album is rich with vocal invention, tight, consistently excellent playing and singular song creation. The more I listen, the more I’m drawn to it. No reservations on this jazz outing, spiced with classical enhancements.

Below is a live performance from The White House, and below that a 13-minute piece on the making of Chamber Music Society.