Jordan Kerr

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),

won the Gibson Montreux International Guitar Competition (2005), played at

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

Hekselman for this moment, and he delivers spectacularly.

One instantly recognizable Aspect of Hekselman’s style is his amazing

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

successive four-note group is executed completely by sliding. He blends with the

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.

A motif he uses extensively throughout, often as part of an arpeggiated figure, is a

hammer-on instantly followed by a pull-off to a note lower than the original. He

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

As mentioned briefly above, his repetition and development of motifs holds

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

extension in mm. 96-97. The rising major arpeggios – F, G, A – in m. 40 are repeated

in m. 98 and the wide pull-off at the top of each arpeggio becomes its own motif that

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

flourishes of sixteenth-note sextuplets. The first solo section begins with a

descending arpeggio (mm. 31-32), then he responds to himself with an ascending

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

execution of an eighth and three sixteenths within a sixteenth-note quintuplet,

continuing in to regular sixteenths. Later, definite use of quintuplets surrounded by

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

of the notes on one string, only re-articulating upon moving to another. In m. 85 he

switches to a swung-16ths feel for two beats, playing with the time and as an

alteration of the sextuplet-feel in his long runs.

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

melodic development, as well as his adaptability into different environments – how

his style can fit seamlessly, influencing and being influenced.