Tell Him, as performed by Esperanza Spalding
(2009, source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xfG-dJFbxc)

I've always loved this performance of Esperanza Spalding's, and figured I might try my hand at a transcription. such a project could only ever be objective to a certain extent, and it goes without saying that many would have done the same task quite differently. 

it's also not intended to be a "performance score", especially seeing as the notation perhaps reflects too many of my own interpretive projections to be "authentic" to the ES's own intentions. as she has said about her own performances, "it was a moment in time" – I wanted to take a closer look at that moment, but perhaps to attempt a replica would be a folly.

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Tell Him

let me be patient, let me be kind
make me unselfish, without being blind
though I may suffer I'll envy it not
and endure what comes, 'cause he's all I've got

and tell him, tell him I need him
tell him I love him and it'll be alright

now I may have strength to make mountains fall
but if I lack love I am nothing at all
I can give away everything I possess
but am without love and I have no happiness
now I know I'm imperfect and not without sin
but now that I'm older all childish things end

and tell him, tell him I need him
tell him I love him and it'll be alright

now, I won't be jealous and I won't be too proud
'cause love is not boastful, and love is not loud

tell him I need him, tell him I love him
and everything will be alright, alright

now, I may have wisdom, knowledge on earth
but if I speak wrong, what is it worth?
see, what we now know is nothing compared
to the love that was shown when our lives were spared

so, so tell him, tell him I need him
tell him I love him and it's gonna be, it's gonna be alright

alright, alright

tell him I
tell him I need him and
love him (?) nothing compared to the love that was shown when our lives were spared

tell him it's gonna be all alright