SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
WINTER, 2015
VOLUME ONE NUMBER TWO
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
WINTER, 2015
VOLUME ONE NUMBER TWO
THELONIOUS MONK
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
ESPERANZA SPALDING
January 31-February 6
MARY LOU WILLIAMS
February 7-13
STEVE COLEMAN
February 14-20
JAMES BROWN
February 21-27
CURTIS MAYFIELD
February 28-March 6
ARETHA FRANKLIN
March 7-13
GEORGE CLINTON
March 14-20
JAMES CARTER
March 21-27
TERENCE BLANCHARD
March 28-April 3
BILLIE HOLIDAY
January 31-February 6
MARY LOU WILLIAMS
February 7-13
STEVE COLEMAN
February 14-20
JAMES BROWN
February 21-27
CURTIS MAYFIELD
February 28-March 6
ARETHA FRANKLIN
March 7-13
GEORGE CLINTON
March 14-20
JAMES CARTER
March 21-27
TERENCE BLANCHARD
March 28-April 3
BILLIE HOLIDAY
April 4-10
[In glorious tribute and gratitude to this great legendary artist we celebrate her centennial year]
VIJAY IYER
April 11-17
CHARLES MINGUS
April 18-24
VIJAY IYER
April 11-17
CHARLES MINGUS
April 18-24
http://jazztimes.com/articles/25434-esperanza-spalding-performs-at-nobel-peace-prize-ceremony-concert
12/11/09
Esperanza Spalding Performs at Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, Concert
12/11/09
Esperanza Spalding Performs at Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, Concert
By Aubrey Everett
Jazz Times
Jazz Times
Among a host of other world-renowned musicians, 25-year-old jazz sensation Esperanza Spalding will perform at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway today. Spalding is a bassist and vocalist from Portland, Ore. and considered a prodigy in the jazz world.
The two-hour event, hosted by Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett Smith, will be shown live today at 1 p.m. on CNN. The show will begin at 8 p.m. local time in Oslo.
Spalding will join fellow American artists Toby Keith, Wyclef Jean and Donna Summer at the concert. The group is rounded out with British singer Natasha Bedingfield, Irish pop group Westlife, Norweigen vocalist and violinist Alexander Rybak, Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi, Amadou & Mariam from Mali, and Chinese pianist Lang Lang.
The concert follows a ceremony yesterday where President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. (Spalding also performed at the Nobel ceremony, following President Obama’s acceptance speech.) Obama is not scheduled to attend today’s concert.
Spalding has released two solo albums and a handful of collaborative disks, and has worked with jazz musicians such as saxophonist Joe Lovano, vibraphonist Dave Samuels and bassist Stanley Clarke.
Spalding taught herself how to play the violin when she was four years old, after watching classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform on the children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
"That was when I realized that I wanted to do something musical,” Spalding said on her Web site. “It was definitely the thing that hipped me to the whole idea of music as a creative pursuit.”
The young musician from a multi-lingual home played violin for the next 10 years in the Chamber Music Society of Oregon, which consists of both children and adults. At age 15 she switched to the bass because it opened up “non-classical avenues” for her to travel, such as blues, hip-hop and funk.
When she was 16, Spalding enrolled in the music program at Portland State University. At 20 she was an instructor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and set the bar for the youngest faculty member in the prestigious school’s history. Spalding was also the 2005 recipient of the Boston Jazz Society Scholarship for outstanding musicianship.
The concert follows a ceremony yesterday where President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. (Spalding also performed at the Nobel ceremony, following President Obama’s acceptance speech.) Obama is not scheduled to attend today’s concert.
Spalding has released two solo albums and a handful of collaborative disks, and has worked with jazz musicians such as saxophonist Joe Lovano, vibraphonist Dave Samuels and bassist Stanley Clarke.
Spalding taught herself how to play the violin when she was four years old, after watching classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform on the children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
"That was when I realized that I wanted to do something musical,” Spalding said on her Web site. “It was definitely the thing that hipped me to the whole idea of music as a creative pursuit.”
The young musician from a multi-lingual home played violin for the next 10 years in the Chamber Music Society of Oregon, which consists of both children and adults. At age 15 she switched to the bass because it opened up “non-classical avenues” for her to travel, such as blues, hip-hop and funk.
When she was 16, Spalding enrolled in the music program at Portland State University. At 20 she was an instructor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and set the bar for the youngest faculty member in the prestigious school’s history. Spalding was also the 2005 recipient of the Boston Jazz Society Scholarship for outstanding musicianship.
At Only 24, Jazz Phenom Esperanza Spalding Has The Ultimate ‘X-Factor’
by Philip Booth
BassPlayer
May 8, 2009
BassPlayer
May 8, 2009
The buzz on Esperanza Spalding has been building since the day she arrived at Berklee College of Music with a full scholarship at age 17, straight from the Pacific Northwest. One moment she was a newbie, motivated to excel but frustrated by a long daily commute and the fiercely competitive nature of Berklee’s student life—and the next, she was backing R&B star Patti Austin on the “For Ella” tour celebrating the music of Ella Fitzgerald. “I learned what touring was,” says Spalding, 24, about that first-semester gig, which resulted in her first tour of Europe and lasted, on and off, for three years. “You can think it’s this fun and amazing thing. But you learn how it really works—how to be on your game every night no matter what. I learned how to play the same music night after night and keep it fresh and interesting. I learned how to accompany a singer, which is very important. Along with the standard American songbook, we were playing a lot of bebop.”
After touring with her former Berklee teacher, master saxophonist Joe Lovano, and releasing the trio album Junjo with pianist Aruan Ortiz and drummer Francisco Mela (also on the Berklee faculty), the Spalding buzz turned into a roar. Esperanza, her debut for Heads Up, has the charismatic musician handily demonstrating her talents as a virtuoso instrumentalist, gifted multilingual vocalist, and potent songwriter. She plays and sings on a jazz-rooted program marked by catchy if tricky melodies, pliable grooves informed by Latin, Brazilian, African, and bebop rhythms, and multiple bursts of ripping fingerboard work and scat singing.
For Esperanza, Spalding is backed by her regular bandmates, pianist Leo Genovese and drummer Otis Brown, and joined by Cuban-born drumming sensation Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and veteran New Orleans saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. The group blows through heady originals augmented by Milton Nascimento’s bossa-inflected “Ponta de Areia” and a version of the standard “Body and Soul” reborn in 5/4 and sung in Spanish. Her goal: sophisticated music built on jazz but influenced by other global traditions and designed for maximum emotional connection. “I’m trying to make it palatable and grooving—something that someone who isn’t schooled in jazz might ingest and appreciate. But it’s based on jazz song forms and solos, melodically and harmonically.”
Spalding, encouraged by her single mother, began playing violin at age five. A decade later she started playing bass, running blues patterns during Sunday-afternoon nightclub sessions with Portland singer/guitarist Sweet Baby James Benton. The young bassist joined a half-dozen bands, including local indie rock/pop group Noise For Pretend. Prior to attending Berklee, she spent a year studying classical music at Portland State University. In summer 2005, at age 20, she began teaching at Berklee, making her one of the college’s youngest-ever faculty members (Pat Metheny famously taught there at 19). On the horizon, she is developing two Berklee courses: one on singing and playing, and another on transcribing as a tool for learning harmony and theory. She’s also determined to write more horns and background vocals into her arrangements. “I want to expand the palette that I have for arrangements, and also home in on this counterpoint concept with the bass and voice—trying to use it in a way that’s effective, trying to integrate that into song forms and into performance.”
How do you help your students get to the next level in their playing?
After touring with her former Berklee teacher, master saxophonist Joe Lovano, and releasing the trio album Junjo with pianist Aruan Ortiz and drummer Francisco Mela (also on the Berklee faculty), the Spalding buzz turned into a roar. Esperanza, her debut for Heads Up, has the charismatic musician handily demonstrating her talents as a virtuoso instrumentalist, gifted multilingual vocalist, and potent songwriter. She plays and sings on a jazz-rooted program marked by catchy if tricky melodies, pliable grooves informed by Latin, Brazilian, African, and bebop rhythms, and multiple bursts of ripping fingerboard work and scat singing.
For Esperanza, Spalding is backed by her regular bandmates, pianist Leo Genovese and drummer Otis Brown, and joined by Cuban-born drumming sensation Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez and veteran New Orleans saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. The group blows through heady originals augmented by Milton Nascimento’s bossa-inflected “Ponta de Areia” and a version of the standard “Body and Soul” reborn in 5/4 and sung in Spanish. Her goal: sophisticated music built on jazz but influenced by other global traditions and designed for maximum emotional connection. “I’m trying to make it palatable and grooving—something that someone who isn’t schooled in jazz might ingest and appreciate. But it’s based on jazz song forms and solos, melodically and harmonically.”
Spalding, encouraged by her single mother, began playing violin at age five. A decade later she started playing bass, running blues patterns during Sunday-afternoon nightclub sessions with Portland singer/guitarist Sweet Baby James Benton. The young bassist joined a half-dozen bands, including local indie rock/pop group Noise For Pretend. Prior to attending Berklee, she spent a year studying classical music at Portland State University. In summer 2005, at age 20, she began teaching at Berklee, making her one of the college’s youngest-ever faculty members (Pat Metheny famously taught there at 19). On the horizon, she is developing two Berklee courses: one on singing and playing, and another on transcribing as a tool for learning harmony and theory. She’s also determined to write more horns and background vocals into her arrangements. “I want to expand the palette that I have for arrangements, and also home in on this counterpoint concept with the bass and voice—trying to use it in a way that’s effective, trying to integrate that into song forms and into performance.”
How do you help your students get to the next level in their playing?
By organizing how they’re going to practice. A lot of my students are overwhelmed by what they have to do in a week. I have them keep a practice journal so they can keep track of what they’ve done, and what they need to do the next time they pick up the instrument. They can see where they left off and see what they have to do next. When you do it in that kind of focused way, you learn a lot about your strengths. At home in your room, you refine what you can do.
How do you advise students on making musical connections with other players?
If you’ve done your homework, you don’t have to think much. The fundamental things are that you have rhythmic accuracy and agility on your instrument. Those are the ideals; that’s what I strive for. You’re going in to listen and converse with what’s being given to you. You have to be confident enough in your knowledge of the “topic” that you don’t need pre-prepared information. You have your own fundamentals down and, depending on the context, you’re open enough that you can literally respond in the moment. If you hear something that someone plays, you know the appropriate way to respond. I learned that playing with Joe Lovano, because he’s so free and has really complicated song forms. It’s also in knowing the song so well that you allow it to sound like itself.
Are there bass players who exemplify that approach?
All the great ones do that. John Patitucci is an amazing example; he does it beautifully, particularly with Directions In Music [with Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Roy Hargrove, and Brian Blade]. With people like Slam Stewart, you think of the more limited role they had then—they managed to do what they did with far fewer words. Ron Carter, Ray Brown, and Christian McBride—they keep an edge of freedom and creativity that keeps it interesting.
Pat Metheny talked about you having an “X factor.” What do you bring to the scene?
If I have a sound, I don’t know what it is yet. Maybe part of it would be an openness. I’m so new to it, it’s still sprouting. When you play, you take on the responsibility of being part of this community. What are you going to contribute, for all that you’re taking from it? That’s what drives me. I realize that it’s a responsibility. As an artist, it’s a blessing and a privilege to get up onstage, to be as creative and as good as I can be to make sure that when people come, they experience something that’s uplifting and beautiful and high quality. It hasn’t been completely refined yet.
After receiving a scholarship to Berklee, you headed a benefit concert to pay your way to Boston. How did that happen?
A friend let me use his gallery, and I paid him a rental fee out of the money I made from the concert. All my friends and their bands played for free. I put that thing on to fly myself and my bass out and have a little money in my pocket to live on. I didn’t realize at the time how hip that was!
What did you emphasize in your studies at Berklee?
I got a professional music degree, where you make your own major. For my senior project, I made a record and was promoting and leading my own band. I would take arranging, composition, vocal classes—all the things I wanted to have strong in my band—and courses in different musical styles, like world music, South American music, Brazilian music.
How did you make the connection with Joe Lovano?
I was in his nonet ensemble at Berklee. He had a trio gig, and my teacher, John Lockwood, couldn’t make it. At first it was Francisco Mela and him, just a trio with me. Then there was a quartet with a piano player, James Weidman, for a few years. Last year he started touring with US5, a quintet with two drummers. We played the Vanguard [in New York] and did a little mini-tour in California.
What kinds of things did you learn from working with him?
Joe doesn’t talk much about what he wants you to do musically. One thing I learned from him is how to learn without having to ask anything. He’d say really esoteric things, like, “Make a landscape. Just relax and follow the lines.” So I thought, How can I be an active participating observer and learn from what he’s showing me in his playing? He has this intense creative and free edge in everything he plays. He really means it—make landscapes, be creative, make up stories as you go, give him something to feel in and walk through and dance to.
Do you reach for that edge of creative freedom in your own music?
I’m getting into more structured song forms. Junjo is pure creativity; we’re just making it up as we go, and responding. That’s always a huge element. I don’t think my strong suit is knowing all the idiosyncrasies of all the periods of jazz, and I might not know all the cues. I get through it by using my ears and being creative. That’s a big part of my playing, and I’m sure it applies to everything I do. I don’t know if that was strengthened by playing with Joe or if it came from playing with Joe.
What kind of impact did your mother have on your music?
I listened to a lot of music. But the way my mom helped to shape my growth was that she would always let me play. If I wanted to play music, she’d be all for it. She was extremely supportive of whatever music was coming out of me. She went to college briefly, because she wanted to play jazz guitar. Going with her to her class, I would sit under the piano. Then I would come home and I would be playing her stuff that her teacher had been playing. I was probably about eight.
How’d you get to the bass from the violin?
It’s like waking up one day and realizing you’re in love with a co-worker. I went into this [high school] music room because I was skipping classes, and I was just messing with the bass. The first time I went in, a music teacher showed me how the blues worked, and from that day on I would always go there every day and play the bass. I was falling in love with it and didn’t even know.
My whole life, I wanted to play cello, and I sometimes thought that the violin was going to turn into the cello. But it went too far and got stuck as the bass.
What kind of impact did your hometown scene have on your playing?
There are a lot of great musicians in Portland that don’t have much to do but hang and teach and be phenomenal resources. I was good enough to pass, and people may have thought I had potential that wasn’t being cultivated. I got lots of opportunities to play beyond my level, which is the best way to get better. When people kick your butt, you feel that pain and go home and practice, and you hope that will alleviate your pain. I think that’s been the case in every band I’ve been in.
There were so many phenomenal bass players in that city at that time, I never got a taste of mediocre fledgling musicians. They were all great: Dave Friesen, Phil Baker from Pink Martini, Glen Moore from Oregon, and my personal teacher, [Oregon Symphony bassist] Ken Baldwin. I was constantly striving to be on the level of these guys. I was playing gigs with people they played with.
When did you start singing and playing at the same time?
It started with Noise For Pretend. I would play simple bass lines and sing simple melodies. Then I started getting into playing them more independently and more creatively. Often at home I’d be practicing tunes and singing the melodies to see how they all worked together. Through that process I started wanting to sing tunes live.
What is the relationship between your singing voice and your voice as a bassist?
When I’m singing, in my mind I’m always thinking of harmony. I’m always hearing different types of chords or progressions imposed on my singing, and I allude to those. On the bass I hear a lot of melodic lines, probably from listening to vocal lines. I’m always talking about counterpoint. It’s the yin and the yang; the bass tends to imply whatever the melody is. It’s about making the right kind of contrary motion.
Are there parallels between the way you phrase vocal lines and the phrasing of your bass lines?
If nothing else, people say that I’m really rhythmic when I sing. Donald [Harrison Jr., saxophonist] says that my playing is really free. Sometimes I get in trouble that way: I feel like anything I can sing, I can play on the bass, which is definitely not true.
Is there a tune on Esperanza that particularly captures where you are as a musician?
Compositionally, I think “I Adore You” is a good representation of the way I’m going now. It has a form that comes back, verse-chorus-verse, but I’m playing with form. The excitement of the song isn’t only in the solo section—there are rich arrangements and interesting forms and lots of melody, and a counterpoint interaction between the voice and bass. “She Got to You” has a lot of the same elements, but I’m trying to make it rock out. It has lyrics, too. I’m trying to get back to having fun and writing how you see and what you think and writing how you talk.
Have any particular pop songwriters influenced your songwriting approach?
I loved French music for a while—Edith Piaf and France Gall. And I had a Wurlitzer [electric piano] in my room because I wanted to be a keyboardist for a little while. Lyrically, most music I heard was in a language I didn’t understand—either Portuguese or French. Then, when I started to listen to jazz, it was [Duke Ellington lyricist] Billy Strayhorn. More important than lyrics, though, have been song form and harmonic things. I like Mario Laginha, a Portuguese composer. And Wayne Shorter. I like a lot of sus sound—suspended major 7.
Do you plan to emphasize your singing more?
I will, as I focus more on my voice. I never thought of myself as a singer. I love the people we all love: Sarah Vaughn, Betty Carter, Dakota Staton. As for being a vocalist, leading a band from the bass chair is totally different from leading from the vocal chair. I’m learning a lot from people like Richard Bona—how he plays in a band as a bassist and singer. Playing takes up so much emotional and mental energy. How do you have enough left over for singing?
What areas did you explore on Esperanza that you didn’t have a chance to with Junjo?
Junjo was like a collaborative effort; I put my name on it and toured under my name. But right away I realized that the tunes I had in mind to do at first weren’t working with those guys. With Esperanza, I’m trying to reach a broader audience with a lot of influences that have shaped my musicianship, that normally you can’t share in a jazz show. Sometimes I go to the Vanguard; it’s so hip, but there are so many people that jazz is foreign to. The objective of this music isn’t twisting and bending set rules that you need to know ahead of time.
How did you decide to sing songs in Spanish and Portuguese?
I usually sing songs in their original language. With Portuguese songs the phrasing of the melody is intrinsically linked with the language, and it’s beautiful.
Why do you have such strong feelings for Brazilian music?
They have some hip stuff happening. There’s innocence, beauty, depth, and simplicity. I think that’s what captured all the jazz musicians. There’s something in the heart.
There’s a real feeling of melancholy.
There are many versions of “Ponta de Areia,” but they all have such a deep story. That country has such an amazing and intense history—even in Rio, poverty and suffering is juxtaposed with a beautiful city.
What made you decide to do “Body and Soul” in Spanish, and in 5/4?
Dave Love, CEO of Heads Up, really wanted a song in Spanish. Off the cuff I said that we could do “Body and Soul.” That song is so beautiful; the English lyrics are simple and poetic. I said, “All right, here’s what we’re gonna do. Let’s see how we can make Spanish really sing in a swing jazz tune. And just for shits and giggles, let’s see if we can do it in five.” We’re trying to make the Spanish phrasing really sink in. I do speak Spanish; my mom is Welsh, Hispanic, and Native American, and my father is black.
What do you attribute your success to?
You never know why things happen the way they happen. I’m blessed. I think it’s the hand of fate; I don’t take full credit for it, because that would be arrogant.
Is there anyone whose career you’d like to model your own after?
I’m drawn to extremes of successful musicians. Ornette Coleman heard a sound and knew he had to be the forefather of that sound and that music. Someone like Herbie Hancock—of course his degree of musicianship is unbelievable, but he’s always been at the front of every wave of music. He’s with each new generation of musicians in terms of technology and new ways of expressing his soul. He has to adapt his style or instrumentation to be successful, and he does. Maybe a cross between Madonna and Ornette Coleman: She completely reinvents herself, but it’s all her.
The beautiful thing about someone like Miles or Ornette or Madonna is that they never have to prove anything because they just are. They know the value of the work that they do. I heard a Miles recording from ’66, a live recording of “’Round Midnight,” that was really uptempo. I asked Joe, “What the hell is this? I’ve never heard him play it this way before.” He said, “Oh, that was the year some critic told him he couldn’t play.” I really admire that.
Gear
Basses Esperanza’s main bass is a 19th-century e-size French flatback with a carved top, purchased about four years ago “at a steal” from a friend in Boston, after the neck on her previous bass kept breaking. “It’s killing,” says Esperanza. “I’d heard someone else playing it and it sounded amazing, so I assumed it would sound that good with me. It didn’t at first. With some basses, you can hear their age; they sound seasoned. I like hearing the history in a bass. It’s like the difference between hearing a 17-year-old sing a ballad and a 70-year-old singing a ballad; this one has a depth and resonance that only comes with age. Air France started harassing me [about the bass’s size], so I gave up on flying with it, although sometimes if it’s a special gig I’ll bring it. I usually just ask for a bass when I get there. If I’m in Europe, I might ask for a Czech bass.” Esperanza uses Thomastik Weichs for the E and A strings and Thomastik Spirocores for the D and G, and plays an unspecified German bow. She amplifies the bass with a Fishman Full Circle pickup.
Spalding also uses an Eminence Portable Upright Bass with a David Gage Realist pickup. “When I travel, I put it in a golf case so people won’t give me a hard time about it being a bass. I always take it with me as a carry-on.”
Finally, she plays a fretless acoustic bass guitar made by Mike Doolin in Portland. “It’s like a mariachi guitar with a flat back. He had a booth at the Montreal Jazz Fest two years ago, and he had the bass out on display. We ended up chatting. I’d never played an electric before. My music didn’t need it, so I thought, Why even bother? But when I heard the tone of this one, I wanted that color; it sounded amazing. It’s so hard to get that type of instrument to sound good, especially with a pickup. I use it more for chords, like more as a guitar, for specific colors. Last summer in Montreal, Mike let me play it at our gigs. That’s the first one he’s ever made; he’s supposed to be building me one of my own, because this is a little big for me. It’s longer than a typical fretless bass, and the body is too fat for me.”
Rig Gallien-Krueger MB150, with pickup/amp sound blended with miked acoustic sound. “I’m using more amp than mic now, just for the sake of consistency.”
Discography
As a leader
Esperanza [Heads Up International, 2008]
Junjo [Ayva Music, 2006].
With Noise For Pretend (both on Hush)
Blanket Music/Noise For Pretend [2001]
Happy You Near [2002]
With Stanley Clarke
The Toys of Men* [Heads Up International, 2007].
With Nando Michelin Trio
Duende [Fresh Sound New Talent]
With M. Ward
Transfiguration of Vincent [Merge, 2003]
With Miroslav Vitous
[ECM, forthcoming]
*vocals only
www.esperanzaspalding.com
Junjo [Ayva Music, 2006].
With Noise For Pretend (both on Hush)
Blanket Music/Noise For Pretend [2001]
Happy You Near [2002]
With Stanley Clarke
The Toys of Men* [Heads Up International, 2007].
With Nando Michelin Trio
Duende [Fresh Sound New Talent]
With M. Ward
Transfiguration of Vincent [Merge, 2003]
With Miroslav Vitous
[ECM, forthcoming]
*vocals only
www.esperanzaspalding.com
Music Review
Esperanza Spalding lights up Tanglewood
Esperanza Spalding lights up Tanglewood
Esperanza Spalding performing Sunday night at Tanglewood. She played both electric and acoutic basses.
By Jeremy D. Goodwin
Boston Globe Correspondent
August 06, 2013
Photo: HILARY SCOTT
LENOX — Esperanza Spalding contains multitudes. At her most creative, the charismatic artist doesn’t so much cross over from jazz to pop as she refracts genres into little slivers that play off each other. Once upon a time in the 20th century, her contemporary R&B effort “Radio Music Society,” released last year, would have prompted a surplus of critical angst over whether or not it’s really jazz. But today, in no small measure because the jazz world can really use a superstar of Spalding’s beaming appeal, it’s all fair play.
But she made little effort to woo the casual fan in concert at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall on Sunday night, the last stateside date supporting that 2012 album. Featuring Spalding plus an 11-piece band (complete with robust brass section), it resembled no concert I’ve recently seen, in the extent to which Spalding invited — required, really — the audience to join her in a self-contained space, where tune after tune unfurled into multi-colored essays that amounted to a delicious slow burn rather than a series of climaxes.
From the opening tune (a slowly congealing “Radio Song”), Spalding whipped her band into a sultry churn, teasing out emotional accents in a deeply textured performance. It was a series of engrossing, if insular, mood poems spiced by plenty of musical virtuosity.
Spalding alternated between basses, authoring deep-grooved riffs on the electric and dexterous, spidery solos on the acoustic. Her assured vocals rarely stole attention from the rest of the musical business, though she did cut loose on an encore duet with pianist Leo Genovese, confidently scatting her way through a song she claimed she’d bungled the day before at the Newport Jazz Festival.
In banter that sounded well practiced, Spalding frequently addressed the audience as if it were an ex-lover she was lobbing the songs at, a move with a weirdly distancing effect. But it also added context to moments like Tia Fuller’s eloquent, agitated saxophone solo in “I Can’t Help It,” bending the song’s outburst of dizzy infatuation into a frustrated lament.
Or “Smile Like That,” where a flowing instrumental dialogue between Fuller and guitarist Ricardo Vogt was crashed by Brian Landrus’s interweaving lines on tenor saxophone, suggesting the looming presence of the third member within a love triangle.
“You sure do sound good together,” Spalding quipped, entirely blurring any distinction between the song’s lyrical narrative and the chops of her excellent band. A musical argument never sounded so harmonious.
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About the performers
ACS: Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding
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ACS (Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington and Esperanza Spalding) gathers three of the most important female instrumentalists in current jazz. Formed out of their work together on Carrington’s Grammy Award winning album “The Mosaic Project,” the small ensemble stretches boundaries and revels in the art form. In response to their debut at New York’s legendary Village Vanguard, The Village Voice remarked, “the set’s expressionistic push-pull turned out to be a show of jazz fealty as disorienting as it was riveting.” The trio is elegant, experimental, and unquestionably bold.
Geri Allen is an internationally recognized composer and pianist. Since 1982 she has recorded, performed or collaborated with Ravi Coltrane, Dianne Reeves, Bill Cosby, Ron Carter, Ornette Coleman and Paul Motian. Allen is also an active jazz educator, and has taught at the New England Conservatory, The New School in New York and her alma mater, Howard University. She currently teaches at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance as an Associate Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation.
American drummer Terri Lyne Carrington has been at the top of the music industry for almost 25 years, collaborating with luminaries like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, David Sanborn, Joe Sample, Cassandra Wilson, Clark Terry, Nancy Wilson, George Duke, Dianne Reeves, and numerous others. Her latest endeavor, “The Mosaic Project,” brings together some of the world’s most celebrated female instrumentalists and vocalists.
In one of the most startling achievements in jazz history, bassist Esperanza Spalding captured the world’s attention upon earning the title of Best New Artist at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. A gifted composer with a hypnotic voice, Spalding stretches the boundaries of jazz and continues her evolution with the 2012 release of Radio Music Society, which she describes as “bombastic and fun – funkier and more upbeat” than her critically acclaimed Chamber Music Society.
http://www.esperanzaspalding.com/cms/discography/
http://jazztimes.com/articles/30015-concert-review-esperanza-spalding-orpheum-theatre-boston-april-22
05/02/12
Concert Review: Esperanza Spalding, Orpheum Theatre, Boston, April 22, 2012
A triumphant homecoming for the Grammy winner and rising star
By Bill Beuttler
Esperanza Spalding had much to celebrate when she headlined
Boston’s Orpheum Theatre on April 22. Most obviously, the show was an
early stop on her tour promoting her pop-chart-climbing new album, Radio Music Society.
But it also took place on Earth Day, a fact she acknowledged by
offering a free download of her sand animation video version of her
cover of Wayne Shorter’s “Endangered Species” via her website (the film
premiered earlier that day on three Jumbotron screens on the National
Mall). It was also a homecoming of sorts, Spalding having begun her rise
to prominence while a student (and, briefly, a teacher) at the Berklee
College of Music.
2
Esperanza Spalding, International Jazz Day, NYC, 4-12
By Jeff Tamarkin
It was also worth celebrating a jazz musician having been booked at a venue of Orpheum’s size (2700 capacity), and nearly filling the space with a diverse crowd of jazz buffs and pop fans. Four-year-old Brooklynn Masso sat watching raptly from her daddy’s lap while a couple of rows in front of her was Fred Taylor, longtime local jazz impresario, who gave Spalding’s career early support by booking her at his current club, Scullers, and at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival. Not far from Taylor sat saxophone hero George Garzone, whose path no doubt crossed Spalding’s at Berklee, and there were likely others on hand who had never seen live jazz before, let alone played it.
The show opened with the focus on an oversized boombox, its dial spinning from station to station, from one familiar radio staple to the next, eventually leading to Spalding’s 11-piece backing band of top young pros getting quick little workouts—including a snippet of scat singing by trumpeter/vocalist Leala Cyr—on an introductory instrumental. Spalding soon strolled out to join them onstage, resplendent in a tight green dress with some sort of white flower affixed to it (both in honor of Earth Day, as she noted later in the set), playing her electric bass and singing wordless vocals.
From there Spalding went on to perform nearly all of the songs from her new album, generally pausing between them to deliver short spoken introductions—the most interesting of them being to “Black Gold,” a racial pride song she was inspired to write, she said, because she recalled encouragement she’d gotten while participating in arts programs as a young black girl, and “I worried there weren’t programs like that for the boys.” (Backing vocalist Chris Turner was more prominent on “Black Gold” than elsewhere.) Visual effects were limited to the bandstand boombox and the prison bars projected behind the stage for her protest song “Land of the Free,” which called attention to the three-decades-long wrongful imprisonment of Cornelius Dupree Jr., and ended with the sound of a cell door bolting shut.
But the emphasis was very much on the music. Spalding switched back and forth from upright to electric bass throughout the set, with longtime associate Leo Genovese carrying much of the musical load, comping and soloing on piano, Rhodes electric piano and electronic keyboards. About half of the seven “Radio Music Society Horns,” like Genovese and drummer Lyndon Rochelle, date back with Spalding to her Berklee days, and all of them helped her ramp up the jazz feel to the music in concert—tight horn sections such as this one aren’t seen much in pop concerts these days, after all. Spalding’s voice, too, seemed weightier than it does on her album.
Beyond their ensemble work, the horns were granted just enough solo time to impress the audience without distracting it from Spalding and her lyrics. Guitarist Jef Lee Johnson, trumpeter Igmar Thomas, and alto saxophonist and musical director Tia Fuller all got short, quick turns on “Smile Like That,” and trombonist Corey King and tenor saxophonist Aaron Burnett did likewise on “Hold on Me.” But mostly the tunes featured one prominent instrumental solo apiece. Trombonist (and Berklee professor) Jeff Galindo blew a crowd-pleaser that meshed brilliantly with Spalding’s singing on “Crowned & Kissed.” Spalding took one herself on upright on “Vague Suspicions.” Fuller was showcased on “Cinnamon Tree,” with Thomas yelling encouragement from behind her as her fiery extended solo built toward its climax. Then Thomas followed with an even more dazzling solo of his own on “Endangered Species.” Dan Blake’s tenor sax solo on the set closer, “Radio Song,” was short, but smart and impassioned. “Radio Song” also saw Rochelle’s lone drum solo of the evening, and an only moderately successful attempt by Spalding to turn it into a sing-along—the melody was a little too complex, or the audience a little too self-conscious, for that to have worked fully as intended.
The audience may have held back its singing, but it didn’t hold back its applause. A standing ovation brought Spalding back onstage for an encore. She said that normally the band would have joined her for “City of Roses,” her tribute to her hometown of Portland, Ore. But she said that she’d spent “so many years living here in Boston,” that she figured she’d sing something about New England instead, and closed out the evening with a lovely a cappella version of a song celebrating the region (whose title, alas, she didn’t announce).
Esperanza Spalding, International Jazz Day, NYC, 4-12
By Jeff Tamarkin
It was also worth celebrating a jazz musician having been booked at a venue of Orpheum’s size (2700 capacity), and nearly filling the space with a diverse crowd of jazz buffs and pop fans. Four-year-old Brooklynn Masso sat watching raptly from her daddy’s lap while a couple of rows in front of her was Fred Taylor, longtime local jazz impresario, who gave Spalding’s career early support by booking her at his current club, Scullers, and at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival. Not far from Taylor sat saxophone hero George Garzone, whose path no doubt crossed Spalding’s at Berklee, and there were likely others on hand who had never seen live jazz before, let alone played it.
The show opened with the focus on an oversized boombox, its dial spinning from station to station, from one familiar radio staple to the next, eventually leading to Spalding’s 11-piece backing band of top young pros getting quick little workouts—including a snippet of scat singing by trumpeter/vocalist Leala Cyr—on an introductory instrumental. Spalding soon strolled out to join them onstage, resplendent in a tight green dress with some sort of white flower affixed to it (both in honor of Earth Day, as she noted later in the set), playing her electric bass and singing wordless vocals.
From there Spalding went on to perform nearly all of the songs from her new album, generally pausing between them to deliver short spoken introductions—the most interesting of them being to “Black Gold,” a racial pride song she was inspired to write, she said, because she recalled encouragement she’d gotten while participating in arts programs as a young black girl, and “I worried there weren’t programs like that for the boys.” (Backing vocalist Chris Turner was more prominent on “Black Gold” than elsewhere.) Visual effects were limited to the bandstand boombox and the prison bars projected behind the stage for her protest song “Land of the Free,” which called attention to the three-decades-long wrongful imprisonment of Cornelius Dupree Jr., and ended with the sound of a cell door bolting shut.
But the emphasis was very much on the music. Spalding switched back and forth from upright to electric bass throughout the set, with longtime associate Leo Genovese carrying much of the musical load, comping and soloing on piano, Rhodes electric piano and electronic keyboards. About half of the seven “Radio Music Society Horns,” like Genovese and drummer Lyndon Rochelle, date back with Spalding to her Berklee days, and all of them helped her ramp up the jazz feel to the music in concert—tight horn sections such as this one aren’t seen much in pop concerts these days, after all. Spalding’s voice, too, seemed weightier than it does on her album.
Beyond their ensemble work, the horns were granted just enough solo time to impress the audience without distracting it from Spalding and her lyrics. Guitarist Jef Lee Johnson, trumpeter Igmar Thomas, and alto saxophonist and musical director Tia Fuller all got short, quick turns on “Smile Like That,” and trombonist Corey King and tenor saxophonist Aaron Burnett did likewise on “Hold on Me.” But mostly the tunes featured one prominent instrumental solo apiece. Trombonist (and Berklee professor) Jeff Galindo blew a crowd-pleaser that meshed brilliantly with Spalding’s singing on “Crowned & Kissed.” Spalding took one herself on upright on “Vague Suspicions.” Fuller was showcased on “Cinnamon Tree,” with Thomas yelling encouragement from behind her as her fiery extended solo built toward its climax. Then Thomas followed with an even more dazzling solo of his own on “Endangered Species.” Dan Blake’s tenor sax solo on the set closer, “Radio Song,” was short, but smart and impassioned. “Radio Song” also saw Rochelle’s lone drum solo of the evening, and an only moderately successful attempt by Spalding to turn it into a sing-along—the melody was a little too complex, or the audience a little too self-conscious, for that to have worked fully as intended.
The audience may have held back its singing, but it didn’t hold back its applause. A standing ovation brought Spalding back onstage for an encore. She said that normally the band would have joined her for “City of Roses,” her tribute to her hometown of Portland, Ore. But she said that she’d spent “so many years living here in Boston,” that she figured she’d sing something about New England instead, and closed out the evening with a lovely a cappella version of a song celebrating the region (whose title, alas, she didn’t announce).
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/esperanza-spalding-mn0000394325/biography
Esperanza Spalding
Biography by Steve Leggett
Launch Esperanza Spalding Radio
Singer and instrumentalist Esperanza Spalding established herself as a wildly flourishing talent in the '00s.
Artist Biography by Steve Leggett
Hailed as a prodigy on the acoustic double bass within months of first touching the instrument as a 15-year-old, Esperanza Spalding has emerged as a fine jazz bassist, but has also distinguished herself playing blues, funk, hip-hop, pop fusion, and Brazilian and Afro-Cuban styles as well. Born in Portland, OR in 1984, Spalding was not well served by the public school system and soon dropped out of classes to be home-schooled. Returning to the public school system at 15, she encountered her first acoustic bass (she had already been playing violin for several years) and immediately took to the instrument. Dropping out of school again, Spalding enrolled in classes at Portland State University as a 16-year-old, and earned her B.A. in just three years and was immediately hired as an instructor in the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston in the spring of 2005. After touring and playing with a whole host of artists, including Joe Lovano, Patti Austin, Michel Camilo, Charlie Haden, Regina Carter, Pat Metheny, Dave Samuels, and many others, in addition to heading her own jazz trio, Spalding recorded and released Junjo on the Barcelona-based Ayva imprint in 2006, following it with 2008's simply named Esperanza (on Heads Up Records), which scored big with critics and listeners alike. The album topped Billboard's contemporary jazz chart and remained on it for over 70 weeks. In addition, it became the best-selling album by a new jazz artist internationally during 2008. Spalding followed it up with Chamber Music Society in August of 2010. The set was comprised of eight originals and three covers -- including Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington's "Wild Is the Wind" and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Inutil Paisagem." It was performed by Spalding's quartet with guest vocal appearances from Milton Nascimento and Gretchen Parlato, a small string section, and guitarist Ricardo Vogt. The album reached number one on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz chart, and she received a Grammy in 2011 for Best New Artist. Spalding recorded a companion album to Chamber Music Society throughout 2011. Entitled Radio Music Society, this set includes her regular band -- drummer Terry Lynne Carrington and pianist Leo Genovese -- with help from longtime collaborator Joe Lovano on saxophone and numerous guests: drummers Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart, guitarists Jef Lee Johnson and Lionel Loueke, hip-hop producer and DJ Q-Tip, and a slew of vocalists, Parlato and Lalah Hathaway among them. It was released in the early spring of 2012.
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/esperanza-spalding-mn0000394325
Album Highlights
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/esperanza-spalding-mn0000394325/biography
Esperanza Spalding - BEST NEW ARTIST 2011 (Interview)
Best New Artist Grammy winner, Esperanza Spalding chats with Billboard.com about her career past, present & future.More Grammy coverage here: http://www.billboard.com/#/features/t...
Esperanza Spalding Took on Bieber, Now Takes on Jazz
The innovative bassist and winner of the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for performing arts is taking jazz to a whole new place
By
Smithsonian Magazine
Esperanza Spalding has brought new life to jazz.
(Ethan Hill)
Esperanza Spalding, the 28-year-old bassist, composer and
vocalist, is shushing her audience - many of whom have paid good money
for the privilege. During the middle of her set at Chicago’s City
Winery, a trendy restaurant and music venue, she holds the microphone
close and admonishes: “Sssshh.” Her virtuoso bass playing and
spellbinding vocals had the audience in the palm of her hand for the
first half of her show. But an extended instrumental interlude
showcasing her band has been marred by talking in the crowd. “I wanna
hear them,” she tells her listeners, gesturing toward her 12-piece
ensemble.
There’s nervous laughter from the audience. A woman near me
indignantly objects that this is a supper club - but does so only in a
whisper. The entire moment lasts no more than ten seconds. The audience
immediately complies, obliging the performers with attentive silence.
In 2011, Spalding found herself onstage and on millions of television screens, collecting a Grammy Award in the Best New Artist category (and sending fans of pop post-teen sensation Justin Bieber, who lost out, into irate Twitter rants).
Her youth and beauty and progressive fashion-she accepted her Grammy in a deconstructed citron chiffon dress and a very intentional afro coaxed into a pompadour-were also an undeniable part of her appeal. Village Voice music critic Greg Tate calls Spalding the “sexiest and best thing to happen to jazz since Wynton.”
Her latest release at the time of the Grammy, Chamber Music Society, was actually her third album. She had already dazzled critics with her 2008 major-label debut, Esperanza, recorded when she was 23; it stayed on the Billboard jazz chart for 62 weeks, peaking at No. 3. In 2009, she performed twice at the White House and, at President Obama’s request, at the ceremony when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo that year. “I wanted to offer something important from our culture, from our music,” she says. “It seemed significant to play jazz there.” (She donated the dress she wore to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.)
Spalding went on to elicit praise for this year’s Radio Music Society, executed, according to Los Angeles Times music critic Chris Barton, “with disarming assurance.” The new album, wrote jazz critic Larry Blumenfeld in the Wall Street Journal, “celebrates sophisticated musical structures that ride accessible grooves.”
Her work is grounded in original compositions and performances moored artfully in jazz, but incorporating influences as varied as soul, Brazilian pop, funk, contemporary classical, blues and hip-hop. Spalding’s vocal compositions range from “Little Fly,” a William Blake poem set to music, to “Land of the Free,” based on the exoneration of Cornelius Dupree, recently released from prison after a wrongful conviction, and “Radio Song,” a paean to the serendipitous pleasure of discovering a song over the airwaves.
Legendary bass player Ron Carter, who collaborated with Miles Davis, helping him shift the music from bop to cool, says Spalding is “on the right track, she’s got a great voice and a great sound. I like the combination of her lyrics with the sound she gets from her bass. I can’t talk and play at the same time, let alone sing, so she’s a step ahead of me.” Electric bassist Meshell Ndegeocello-known for her own capacity to rap while she plays-is also impressed with the scope of Spalding’s gifts. “What makes her so phenomenal is she can speak so fluidly with her bass and her vocals.”
Spalding seems to have developed a healthy relationship with her still emerging fame. She’s often a tour headliner, as she is this evening in Chicago, where onstage she is radiant in a diaphanous ivory dress. In four-inch stilettos, she alternates between playing an electric bass and her mammoth upright bass. (Her website features a collection of dresses produced by designers concerned with creating sustainable couture.) “I feel like whenever I end up in some high-profile place like the Oscars or the Grammys, it’s a fluke,” she told me earlier that day. “I feel like I’m already there representing the underrepresented.” After answering typical red-carpet questions at those events about who she was wearing, she asked a friend to help her locate eco-friendly designers. “Since people are talking about fashion, I want them to also talk about the fact that there’s an alternative to sweatshops, synthetics and toxic dyes.”
Spalding is equally likely, however, to perform in a supporting role with someone like multi-instrumentalist Joe Lovano. She has given a great deal of thought to collaborative accomplishment. “There’s a cultural myth that’s rampant in the entertainment industry that minimizes collaboration, that overemphasizes soloists and stars and focuses on the individual,” Spalding says. “I don’t ever want to cater to that myth in our culture. Because, inevitably, there are people who aren’t written into history; you know, the teachers, all the teachers that Bird [Charlie Parker] studied with? The bands that he first started playing with? Aren’t they just as integral as his gift?”
Spalding considers collaboration to be a kind of learning lab, where musical ideas and life philosophy are explored. “When I play with Terri Lyne Carrington or Geri Allen or even Prince, yes, what we’re doing musically is one element of what we’ve come together to do, but 95 percent of it is hanging around and talking about everything from buying a house to leading a rehearsal. I learn so much every day from those kinds of interactions.” Inside the music, where instrumentalists are communicating new ideas in the moment, she insists, innovations are still part of the larger group’s exchange. “Particularly in any music that revolves around improvisation, the magic and the beauty of it is that every night something new and different happens. Because we’re inviting the question ‘What will we do tonight?’ ‘What will we do right now?’”
At the same time, Spalding acknowledges that the individual creative process also sustains her. How and when does inspiration strike? “Something new, a melodic idea, will come to you,” she says. “You wonder, ‘Wow, where’d that come from?’” That is the moment, she adds, when it’s important to “stop and take notice.”
She and her older brother grew up with their mother, a single parent, in Portland, Oregon. Spalding dropped out of her magnet school at age 16 because high school, she says, “wasn’t so much about learning, it was about social programming, which can be fun, if you aspire to reign over the social strata of the school.” Eventually she completed her GED. When she wasn’t losing herself in a book, she volunteered at environmental conservation organizations or homeless shelters. “I got that from my mom, she’s a conscientious person,” Spalding says. “She doesn’t like the talking part but the doing part, which I appreciate.” Her bass teacher at the time encouraged her to audition for a scholarship at Portland State University. Later, she moved cross-country to Berklee College of Music in Boston.
She still seems to be discovering who she is onstage as the main attraction. In the tradition of the best blues women, she’s comfortable telling stories as preludes to songs. These conversational moments likely serve to help her audience, who may or may not be well versed in jazz, connect to the music. Spalding and backup singer Chris Turner in- voke the name of slain Florida teen- ager Trayvon Martin as they introduce the song “Black Gold,” her meditation on the hopes and fears of African-American boys. Before performing “Land of the Free,” she alludes to Dupree, who was incarcerated for decades before being cleared by DNA evidence. “I’m not 30 years old yet, I can’t wrap my head around...30 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit.” She announces that part of her merchandise sales will be donated to the Innocence Project, the organization dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted.
It’s the music that Spalding thinks most about. “An idea announces itself and it seems like there’s something meaningful to be found by exploring that idea,” she says of the imaginative habits that underlie her creation of original material. “It’s a process of sitting down over days, or hours, months, sometimes years, and trying to coax that idea into its full state of beingness.”
In that same way, she hopes to push jazz into the future. “I’m searching for the most beautiful version of ideas that I receive, leaving the windows open for influences outside jazz,” Spalding says. Ultimately, she adds, she aspires to “create an invitation to explore the music for a larger cross-section of listeners.”
From This Story
In 2011, Spalding found herself onstage and on millions of television screens, collecting a Grammy Award in the Best New Artist category (and sending fans of pop post-teen sensation Justin Bieber, who lost out, into irate Twitter rants).
Her youth and beauty and progressive fashion-she accepted her Grammy in a deconstructed citron chiffon dress and a very intentional afro coaxed into a pompadour-were also an undeniable part of her appeal. Village Voice music critic Greg Tate calls Spalding the “sexiest and best thing to happen to jazz since Wynton.”
Her latest release at the time of the Grammy, Chamber Music Society, was actually her third album. She had already dazzled critics with her 2008 major-label debut, Esperanza, recorded when she was 23; it stayed on the Billboard jazz chart for 62 weeks, peaking at No. 3. In 2009, she performed twice at the White House and, at President Obama’s request, at the ceremony when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo that year. “I wanted to offer something important from our culture, from our music,” she says. “It seemed significant to play jazz there.” (She donated the dress she wore to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.)
Spalding went on to elicit praise for this year’s Radio Music Society, executed, according to Los Angeles Times music critic Chris Barton, “with disarming assurance.” The new album, wrote jazz critic Larry Blumenfeld in the Wall Street Journal, “celebrates sophisticated musical structures that ride accessible grooves.”
Her work is grounded in original compositions and performances moored artfully in jazz, but incorporating influences as varied as soul, Brazilian pop, funk, contemporary classical, blues and hip-hop. Spalding’s vocal compositions range from “Little Fly,” a William Blake poem set to music, to “Land of the Free,” based on the exoneration of Cornelius Dupree, recently released from prison after a wrongful conviction, and “Radio Song,” a paean to the serendipitous pleasure of discovering a song over the airwaves.
Legendary bass player Ron Carter, who collaborated with Miles Davis, helping him shift the music from bop to cool, says Spalding is “on the right track, she’s got a great voice and a great sound. I like the combination of her lyrics with the sound she gets from her bass. I can’t talk and play at the same time, let alone sing, so she’s a step ahead of me.” Electric bassist Meshell Ndegeocello-known for her own capacity to rap while she plays-is also impressed with the scope of Spalding’s gifts. “What makes her so phenomenal is she can speak so fluidly with her bass and her vocals.”
Spalding seems to have developed a healthy relationship with her still emerging fame. She’s often a tour headliner, as she is this evening in Chicago, where onstage she is radiant in a diaphanous ivory dress. In four-inch stilettos, she alternates between playing an electric bass and her mammoth upright bass. (Her website features a collection of dresses produced by designers concerned with creating sustainable couture.) “I feel like whenever I end up in some high-profile place like the Oscars or the Grammys, it’s a fluke,” she told me earlier that day. “I feel like I’m already there representing the underrepresented.” After answering typical red-carpet questions at those events about who she was wearing, she asked a friend to help her locate eco-friendly designers. “Since people are talking about fashion, I want them to also talk about the fact that there’s an alternative to sweatshops, synthetics and toxic dyes.”
Spalding is equally likely, however, to perform in a supporting role with someone like multi-instrumentalist Joe Lovano. She has given a great deal of thought to collaborative accomplishment. “There’s a cultural myth that’s rampant in the entertainment industry that minimizes collaboration, that overemphasizes soloists and stars and focuses on the individual,” Spalding says. “I don’t ever want to cater to that myth in our culture. Because, inevitably, there are people who aren’t written into history; you know, the teachers, all the teachers that Bird [Charlie Parker] studied with? The bands that he first started playing with? Aren’t they just as integral as his gift?”
Spalding considers collaboration to be a kind of learning lab, where musical ideas and life philosophy are explored. “When I play with Terri Lyne Carrington or Geri Allen or even Prince, yes, what we’re doing musically is one element of what we’ve come together to do, but 95 percent of it is hanging around and talking about everything from buying a house to leading a rehearsal. I learn so much every day from those kinds of interactions.” Inside the music, where instrumentalists are communicating new ideas in the moment, she insists, innovations are still part of the larger group’s exchange. “Particularly in any music that revolves around improvisation, the magic and the beauty of it is that every night something new and different happens. Because we’re inviting the question ‘What will we do tonight?’ ‘What will we do right now?’”
At the same time, Spalding acknowledges that the individual creative process also sustains her. How and when does inspiration strike? “Something new, a melodic idea, will come to you,” she says. “You wonder, ‘Wow, where’d that come from?’” That is the moment, she adds, when it’s important to “stop and take notice.”
She and her older brother grew up with their mother, a single parent, in Portland, Oregon. Spalding dropped out of her magnet school at age 16 because high school, she says, “wasn’t so much about learning, it was about social programming, which can be fun, if you aspire to reign over the social strata of the school.” Eventually she completed her GED. When she wasn’t losing herself in a book, she volunteered at environmental conservation organizations or homeless shelters. “I got that from my mom, she’s a conscientious person,” Spalding says. “She doesn’t like the talking part but the doing part, which I appreciate.” Her bass teacher at the time encouraged her to audition for a scholarship at Portland State University. Later, she moved cross-country to Berklee College of Music in Boston.
She still seems to be discovering who she is onstage as the main attraction. In the tradition of the best blues women, she’s comfortable telling stories as preludes to songs. These conversational moments likely serve to help her audience, who may or may not be well versed in jazz, connect to the music. Spalding and backup singer Chris Turner in- voke the name of slain Florida teen- ager Trayvon Martin as they introduce the song “Black Gold,” her meditation on the hopes and fears of African-American boys. Before performing “Land of the Free,” she alludes to Dupree, who was incarcerated for decades before being cleared by DNA evidence. “I’m not 30 years old yet, I can’t wrap my head around...30 years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit.” She announces that part of her merchandise sales will be donated to the Innocence Project, the organization dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted.
It’s the music that Spalding thinks most about. “An idea announces itself and it seems like there’s something meaningful to be found by exploring that idea,” she says of the imaginative habits that underlie her creation of original material. “It’s a process of sitting down over days, or hours, months, sometimes years, and trying to coax that idea into its full state of beingness.”
In that same way, she hopes to push jazz into the future. “I’m searching for the most beautiful version of ideas that I receive, leaving the windows open for influences outside jazz,” Spalding says. Ultimately, she adds, she aspires to “create an invitation to explore the music for a larger cross-section of listeners.”
Read more:http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/esperanza-spalding-took-on-bieber-now-takes-on-jazz-136453406/#g83zRGcZwRGAtZll.99
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
Review by Thom Jurek
Esperanza Spalding's fourth album, Radio Music Society (a companion piece to Chamber Music Society in name only) is one of enormous ambition -- polished production, sophisticated, busy charts, and classy songwriting -- that consciously juxtaposes neo-soul and adult-oriented jazz-tinged pop. It employs a stellar cast, largely of jazz musicians, to pull it off. She produced the set, with help from Q-Tip on a couple of numbers, and wrote all but two songs here: a cover of "I Can't Help It" (a Michael Jackson cover written by Stevie Wonder) and Wayne Shorter's "Endangered Species." There are truckloads of players, including three different all-star drummers in Terri Lyne Carrington, Jack DeJohnette, and Billy Hart, saxophonist Joe Lovano, and guitarists Jef Lee Johnson and Lionel Loueke on "Black Gold" (which also contains his vocals and an appearance by the Savannah Children's Choir). Though Ms. Spalding takes most lead vocals, there are also duet appearances from Lalah Hathaway and Algebra Blessett. Backing vocalists include Gretchen Parlato (who also anchors a chorus on several tunes) and Leni Stern. The American Music Program horn section appears on three cuts. The highlights here include "Crowned & Kissed" (a Q-Tip co-production) with its rubbery bassline, contrapuntal horns, Leo Genovese's artful pianism, and Carrington's impeccable sense of swing that bridges funk, neo-soul, jazz, and hip-hop. "Radio Song" contains layered interpolated rhythms (again courtesy of Carrington), sparkling Rhodes piano, syncopated horns and backing chorus, Spalding's alto croon, and a taut, popping bassline. Lovano's saxophone adds a truly elegant and graceful dimension to "I Can't Help It." The charts on Shorter's tune (with lyrics by Spalding) illuminate what may have been the composer's intent all along -- and nod at Pastorius-era Weather Report simultaneously. DeJohnette's funky subtlety drives the knotty fingerpop of "Let Her," and Hart's trademark, shimmering cymbal work on "Hold on Me" complements Spalding's sultry vocal in retro bluesy pop -- it's one of only a couple of places on the record where she plays acoustic bass. While Radio Music Society may play better to younger pop audiences than more die-hard jazzheads, this program is so diverse and well executed -- despite a little overreaching -- it's anybody's guess.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/music-review-esperanza-spalding-radio-music-society/2012/03/16/gIQAKrSHOS_story.html
Music review:
Esperanza Spalding: ‘Radio Music Society’
By Mike Joyce
March 19, 2012
Washington Post
Music review:
Esperanza Spalding: ‘Radio Music Society’
By Mike Joyce
March 19, 2012
Washington Post
Before Esperanza Spalding triumphed at the Grammys last year, winning Best New Artist honors while throwing fans of fellow contender Justin Bieber into a deep funk, she made the Washington rounds in style, appearing at the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Theater and the White House. Good gigs. The bassist-vocalist-composer also performed at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 2009, at the invitation of President Obama, and at the Oscars last month.
“Radio Music Society,” her new concept album, indicates that Spalding won’t be suffering a career reversal anytime soon. Young, gifted and backed by an impressive array of pop, jazz and hip-hop talent, as well as some of her early mentors, the 27-year-old native of Portland, Ore., has created her most enticing, personal and thematically diverse collection yet, a welcome companion to her 2010 release “Chamber Music Society.”
Don’t bother looking for anything strikingly original. Spalding is a synthesist, not a ground-breaker. But from the outset, “Radio Music Society” reveals her pop instincts, jazz sensibilities and social awareness with ingenuity. “Radio Song,” a summery ode to rush-hour relief (“This song will keep you groovin’, keep traffic groovin’ ”) is the opener. It’s a simple, lighthearted lyric wed to a sophisticated arrangement that borrows freely from a variety of jazz, pop and Latin traditions. It’s also the first of several reminders of how Spalding, like the jazz-savvy Joni Mitchell before her, is capable of creating radio songs that have some musical heft. Other engaging tunes follow suit. “Cinnamon Tree,” with its insinuating electric bass lines, perfectly suits Spalding’s lithe soprano. Saxophonist Joe Lovano helps soulfully rejuvenate Stevie Wonder’s “I Can’t Help It,” while Spalding’s torchy ballad “Hold on Me” radiates a brassy, blues-tinted allure. Thanks to Lovano and other jazz heavyweights, including drummers Terri Lyne Carrington, Billy Hart and Jack DeJohnette, Spalding is in excellent company throughout.
Ironically, some songs that stand out on “Radio Music Society” aren’t apt to snare widespread airplay. “Land of the Free” is inspired by the plight of Cornelius Dupree, who served 30 years in prison after being falsely accused of murder. It’s a stirring interlude, as is “Vague Suspicions,” a commentary on war, religion and the media. Saxophonist Wayne Shorter, a hero to both Spalding and Mitchell, is represented by “Endangered Species.”
Spalding contributes a cautionary lyric about ecological abuse to the imaginatively arranged performance, a showcase for guest vocalist Lalah Hathaway. On the other hand, “Black Gold,” the album’s first single, is bound to win Spalding a lot of new fans. In addition to offering words of encouragement to African American boys (“Hold your head as high as you can / high enough to see who you are, little man”), it boasts a bright and vibrant chorus.
The deluxe edition of “Radio Music Society” comes with a DVD that features a series of short films inspired by the music. Not surprisingly, the album’s socially relevant songs make the most lasting video impressions.
Recommended tracks
“Radio Song” “Black Gold” “Hold On Me”
“Radio Music Society,” her new concept album, indicates that Spalding won’t be suffering a career reversal anytime soon. Young, gifted and backed by an impressive array of pop, jazz and hip-hop talent, as well as some of her early mentors, the 27-year-old native of Portland, Ore., has created her most enticing, personal and thematically diverse collection yet, a welcome companion to her 2010 release “Chamber Music Society.”
Don’t bother looking for anything strikingly original. Spalding is a synthesist, not a ground-breaker. But from the outset, “Radio Music Society” reveals her pop instincts, jazz sensibilities and social awareness with ingenuity. “Radio Song,” a summery ode to rush-hour relief (“This song will keep you groovin’, keep traffic groovin’ ”) is the opener. It’s a simple, lighthearted lyric wed to a sophisticated arrangement that borrows freely from a variety of jazz, pop and Latin traditions. It’s also the first of several reminders of how Spalding, like the jazz-savvy Joni Mitchell before her, is capable of creating radio songs that have some musical heft. Other engaging tunes follow suit. “Cinnamon Tree,” with its insinuating electric bass lines, perfectly suits Spalding’s lithe soprano. Saxophonist Joe Lovano helps soulfully rejuvenate Stevie Wonder’s “I Can’t Help It,” while Spalding’s torchy ballad “Hold on Me” radiates a brassy, blues-tinted allure. Thanks to Lovano and other jazz heavyweights, including drummers Terri Lyne Carrington, Billy Hart and Jack DeJohnette, Spalding is in excellent company throughout.
Ironically, some songs that stand out on “Radio Music Society” aren’t apt to snare widespread airplay. “Land of the Free” is inspired by the plight of Cornelius Dupree, who served 30 years in prison after being falsely accused of murder. It’s a stirring interlude, as is “Vague Suspicions,” a commentary on war, religion and the media. Saxophonist Wayne Shorter, a hero to both Spalding and Mitchell, is represented by “Endangered Species.”
Spalding contributes a cautionary lyric about ecological abuse to the imaginatively arranged performance, a showcase for guest vocalist Lalah Hathaway. On the other hand, “Black Gold,” the album’s first single, is bound to win Spalding a lot of new fans. In addition to offering words of encouragement to African American boys (“Hold your head as high as you can / high enough to see who you are, little man”), it boasts a bright and vibrant chorus.
The deluxe edition of “Radio Music Society” comes with a DVD that features a series of short films inspired by the music. Not surprisingly, the album’s socially relevant songs make the most lasting video impressions.
Recommended tracks
“Radio Song” “Black Gold” “Hold On Me”
THE MUSIC OF ESPERANZA SPALDING:
AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH MS. SPALDING:
1. Radio Song 0:00
Radio Music Society | Esperanza Spalding | 2012 | Full Album:
1. Radio Song 0:00
2. Cinnamon Tree 6:30
3. Crowned & Kissed 12:06
4. Land Of The Free 16:42
5. Black Gold 18:35
6. I Can't Help It (Stevie Wonder) 23:53
7. Hold On Me 28:35
8. Vague Suspicions 32:16
9. Endangered Species 38:07
10. Let Her 44:44
11. City Of Roses 49:05
12. Smile Like That 53:40
Esperanza Spalding LIVE at The White House at Gershwin Prize concert in honor of recipient Stevie Wonder in 2009; Performs "Overjoyed" by S. Wonder:
ESPERANZA SPALDING: INTERVIEW AT THE ROOTS
PICNIC 2011:
Society
HAE got a chance to sit down for an intimate conversation with
Esperanza Spalding at The Roots Picnic in Philadelphia. We chat about
her music, her creative process, the importance of studying your craft,
and how jazz and live instrumentation are being revitalized.
Esperanza Spalding-- "Jazz Ain't Nothin' But Soul"-- (Betty Carter cover) live in 2009:
bass & vocals: Esperanza Spalding
drums: Otis Brown
piano: Leo Genovese
guitar: Ricardo Vogt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoEjwDaQvfc
Esperanza Spalding on jazz & music education:
JazzTimes In Person interview with bassist/singer/bandleader Esperanza
Spalding from backstage at the 2011 Newport Jazz Festival, presented by
Natixis. In this segment, Spalding talks about her jazz and music
education, about her teachers and mentors and about her own experience
as a teacher and mentor.
This segment is one of several done with musicians who were performing at the 2011 Newport Jazz Festival.
Interview by Lee Mergner. Video by Melissa Mergner.
For more information about JazzTimes magazine, go to jazztimes.com.
Geri Allen, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington 'Jazz in Marciac' live concert - "Unconditional love" (composition by Geri Allen); 2014
ACS Trio:
Geri Allen--Piano
Terri Lyne Carrington--Drums
Esperanza Spalding: Bass and vocals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2014/07/16/esmeralda-spalding-up-close-but-not-personal/
Esperanza Spalding, a portrait. By Bo Gehring, 2014.
Esperanza's chosen music "Tarde" (1974) used with the kind permission of Wayne Shorter:
http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_25416188/esperanza-spalding-talks-about-wayne-shorter
| Esperanza Spalding discusses her hero Wayne Shorter | |||
|
Esperanza - "Body & Soul" (She sings this classic song in Spanish--BEAUTIFUL...
Esperanza Spalding - "Fall In" (2008) + Playlist Mix:
Esperanza Spalding
Official Site: http://www.esperanzaspalding.com
Official Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EsperanzaSpal...
This song speaks to an experience we've all had at one time or another: when for whatever reason, you turn on the radio and a fragment of a song just grabs you, everything in the world seems to stop, and you sit mesmerized and uplifted by the music. That moment of "being touched" from the radio is a testament to the power of song, and it's at that magical moment when an artist - even someone we know nothing about - truly connects with their equally unknown listener.
- 129 videos
Esperanza Spalding - AVO Session 2012:
Personnel:
Esperanza Spalding - double bass, electric bass and lead vocal
Igmar Thomas - trumpet
Leala Cyr - trumpet and backing vocals
Jeff Galindo - trombone
Corey King - trombone
Dan "Daniele" Blake - tenor and soprano sax
Renato Caranto - sax
Tia Fuller - sax
Aaron Burnett - sax
Jeff Lee Johnson - guitar
Leo Genovese - piano, rhodes and keyboards
Lyndon Rochelle - drums and backing vocals
Nicholas Crosa -- Violin
Pancy Chang -- Cello
● Musical Theater Basel: Basel, Switzerland, 2012-November-07:
Esperanza Spalding: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
The
bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding conceived of Chamber Music
Society as an intimate experience, a close musical exchange between a
small group of friends. If it was intimacy she wanted, she got her wish:
Performing three songs in the constraints of Bob Boilen's workspace
ensures that all of her supporting players were nice and cozy.
Set List:
"Little Fly"
"Midnight Sun"
"Apple Blossom"
Esperanza Spalding Interview:
Uploaded on Jan 19, 2009
A conversation with Esperanza Spalding. (Congratulations on the Grammy).
Esperanza Spalding speaks about her first experiences with music and her new album
Esperanza Spalding Grooves
Mix - Stevie Wonder with Esperanza Spalding (part 2):
At just 23 years old, Portland, Ore. native Esperanza Spalding is a jazz bassist and vocalist who is getting set to release her second album. The soulful singer stops by "The Second Cup Café.”
Esperanza Spalding Radio Music Society Orchestra- full concert ( 2012 ):
Esperanza Spalding Nobel Peace Prize Performance LIVE:
Esperanza Spalding Live in Copenhagen:
Heads Up artist, Acoustic Bassist/Vocalist/Composer
Esperanza Spalding Playing Live in Copenhagen
Esperanza Spalding - Black Gold (OFFICIAL)
Esperanza Spalding "She Got To You"
Jimmy Kimmel Live 6/11/08--ABC-TV:
Esperanza Spalding
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Esperanza Spalding | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Spalding performing at the Newport Jazz Festival on August 10, 2008
|
|||
| Background information | |||
| Born | October 18, 1984
Portland, Oregon United States |
||
| Genres | Jazz, jazz fusion, bossa nova, neo soul, R&B | ||
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, educator, bandleader | ||
| Instruments | Vocals, upright bass, bass guitar, violin | ||
| Years active | 2000–present[1] | ||
| Labels | |||
| Associated acts | Stanley Clarke, Patti Austin, Joe Lovano | ||
| Website | esperanzaspalding | ||
She has won four Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 53rd Grammy Awards,[3] making her the first jazz artist to win the award.[4][5]
Contents
Biography
Early life and early education
Spalding grew up in the King neighborhood of Portland, Oregon,[6] a neighborhood she has described as "ghetto" and "pretty scary".[7] Her mother raised her and her brother as a single parent.[8]
Her father is African American and her mother is of Welsh, Native American, and Hispanic descent.[7][9][10] Spalding has an interest in the music of other cultures, including that of Brazil,[11] commenting: "With Portuguese songs, the phrasing of the melody is intrinsically linked with the language, and it's beautiful."[12]
Spalding's mother shares her interest in music, having nearly become a touring singer herself.[8][13]
But while Spalding cites her mother as a powerful influence who
encouraged her musical expansion, she attributes her inspiration for
pursuing a life in music to watching classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood when she was four.[8]
By the time Spalding was five, she had taught herself to play the violin and was playing with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon.[8] Spalding stayed with the group until she was 15 and left as concertmaster.[8] Due to a lengthy illness when she was a child, Spalding spent much of her elementary school years being homeschooled,[8] but also attended King Elementary School in northeast Portland.[6]
During this time, she also found the opportunity to pick up instruction
in music by listening to her mother's college teacher instruct her
mother in guitar.[12]
According to Spalding, when she was about 8, her mother briefly studied
jazz guitar in college; Spalding says: "Going with her to her class, I
would sit under the piano. Then I would come home and I would be playing
her stuff that her teacher had been playing".[12] Spalding also played oboe and clarinet before discovering the double bass in high school.[8][14] She is able to sing in English, Spanish and Portuguese.[15]
Spalding had begun performing live in clubs in Portland, Oregon, as a teenager,[11] securing her first gig at 15 in a blues club, when she could play only one line on bass.[16]
One of the seasoned musicians with which she played that first night
invited her to join the band's rehearsals "so she could actually learn
something", and her rehearsals soon grew into regular performances
spanning almost a year.[16] According to Spalding, it was a chance for her to stretch as a musician, reaching and growing beyond her experience.[12] Her early contact with these "phenomenal resources", as she calls the musicians who played with her,[12] fostered her sense of rhythm and helped nurture her interest in her instrument.[16]
She does not consider herself a musical prodigy;[17]
"I am surrounded by prodigies everywhere I go, but because they are a
little older than me, or not a female, or not on a major label, they are
not acknowledged as such", said Spalding.[17]
Spalding had intended to play cello,[12] but discovered the bass during a one-year stint at age 14 at the performing arts high school, The Northwest Academy, to which she had won a scholarship.[16][18] The school was not a good fit, but the bass was.[16]
Spalding found high school "easy – and boring" and dropped out. When
she was 15 or 16 years old, Spalding started writing lyrics for music
for the local indie rock/pop group Noise for Pretend, touching on any
topic that came to mind.[17]
Although she had taken a few private voice lessons, which taught her
how to project her voice, her primary singing experience had come from
"singing in the shower", she said,[17] before she started performing vocals for Noise for Pretend.[12]
Her desire to perform live evolved naturally out of the compositional
process, when she would sing and play simultaneously to see how melody
and voice fit together, but she acknowledges that performing both roles
can be challenging.[12][19]
In a 2008 interview, she said, "[W]hat can be difficult is being a
singer, in the sense that you are engaged with the audience, and really
responsible for emoting, and getting into the lyrics, melody, etc., and
being an effective bassist/band leader".[19]
Spalding left high school at 16, and after completing her GED enrolled in a music scholarship in the music program at Portland State University, where she remembers being "the youngest bass player in the program".[8] Although she lacked the training of her fellow students, she feels that her teachers nevertheless recognized her talent.[8] She decided to apply to Berklee College of Music on the encouragement of her bass teacher, and did well enough in her audition to receive a full scholarship.[13][16]
In spite of the scholarship, Spalding found meeting living expenses a
challenge, so her friends arranged a benefit concert that paid her
airfare and a little extra.[12][16]
Spalding's savings did not last long. Broke and exhausted,[20] she considered leaving music and entering political science,[13] a move jazz guitarist and composer Pat Metheny discouraged, telling Spalding she had "the 'X Factor'" and could make it if she applied herself.[13] During her time at Berklee, her primary bass instructor was John Lockwood.[citation needed]
2004–07: Musical beginnings, teaching and Junjo
Spalding performing at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy, on July 12, 2007.
Gary Burton,
Executive Vice President at Berklee, said in 2004 that Spalding had "a
great time feel, she can confidently read the most complicated
compositions, and she communicates her upbeat personality in everything
she plays".[16]
Ben Ratliff wrote in The New York Times on July 9, 2006, that Spalding's voice is "light and high, up in Blossom Dearie's
pitch range, and [that] she can sing quietly, almost in a daydream" and
that Spalding "invents her own feminine space, a different sound from
top to bottom."[21] Spalding was the 2005 recipient of the Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship.[8]
Almost immediately after graduation from college later the same year,
Spalding was hired by Berklee College of Music, becoming one of the
youngest instructors in the institution's history,[12] at age 20.[22]
As a teacher, Spalding tries to help her students focus their practice
through a practice journal, which can help them recognize their
strengths and what they need to pursue.[12]
Her debut album, Junjo, was released on April 18, 2006, on the Ayva Music label.[23][24] It was created to display the dynamic that she felt among her trio.[17] Though Junjo was released solely under her name, Spalding considers it "a collaborative effort".[12]
2008–10: Esperanza
Spalding performing on December 10, 2009, at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert of 2009.
When asked in 2008 why she plays the bass instead of some other instrument, Spalding said that it was not a choice, but the bass "had its own arc" and resonated with her.[17] Spalding has said that, for her, discovering the bass was like "waking up one day and realizing you're in love with a co-worker."[12] By the time she randomly picked up the bass in music class and began experimenting with it, she had grown bored with her other instruments.[16][25] Her band teacher showed her a blues line for the bass that she later used to secure her first gig.[16] After that, she went in to play the bass daily and gradually fell in love.[12]
Ratliff wrote in The New York Times again, two years later, on
May 26, 2008, that one of Spalding's central gifts is "a light, fizzy,
optimistic drive that's in her melodic bass playing and her elastic,
small-voiced singing," but that "the music is missing a crucial measure
of modesty."[26] He added: "It's an attempt at bringing this crisscrossing [of Stevie Wonder and Wayne Shorter] to a new level of definition and power, but its vamps and grooves are a little obvious, and it pushes her first as a singer-songwriter, which isn't her primary strength."[26]
Pat Metheny
said in 2008 it was immediately obvious "that she had a lot to say and
was also unlike any musician I had ever run across before. Her unique
quality is something that goes beyond her pretty amazing musical skills;
she has that rare 'x' factor of being able to transmit a certain
personal kind of vision and energy that is all her own."[20] Andrés Quinteros wrote in the Argentinian periodical, 26Noticias on October 28, 2008, that Spalding is one of the greatest new talents on the jazz scene today.[27] Patti Austin hired Spalding to tour with her internationally after Spalding's first semester at Berklee,[16] where Spalding supported the singer on the Ella Fitzgerald tribute tour "For Ella."[12]
In 2008 Spalding recalled the tour as educational, helping her learn
to accompany a vocalist and also how to sustain energy and interest
playing the same material nightly.[12] She continued to perform with Austin periodically for three years.[12] During the same period, while at Berklee, Spalding studied under saxophonist Joe Lovano, before eventually touring with him.[12]
They began as a trio, expanding into a quartet before joining quintet
US5 and traveling across the United States from New York to California.[12]
As of 2008, she was also in the process of developing several courses
for students at Berklee, including one that focuses "on transcribing as a
tool for learning harmony and theory."[12] Due to touring commitments, Spalding stopped giving classes at Berklee. She lives in New York and Austin, Texas.
Spalding performing at the Northsea Jazz Festival, 2009.
Esperanza is Spalding's second studio album. Being exposed to many different cultural impressions while growing up, Spalding sings in three languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese.[28]
After Spalding's Grammy win in February 2011, the album entered the Billboard 200 at 138. With Esperanza,
Spalding's material was meant to be more reflective of herself as an
artist, with musicians selected to best present that material.[17] Ed Morales wrote in PopMatters on June 23, 2008, that Esperanza is "a sprawling collage of jazz fusion, Brazilian, and even a touch of hip-hop."[29] Siddhartha Mitter wrote in The Boston Globe on May 23, 2008, that "the big change" in Esperanza "is the singing.... This makes it a much more accessible album, and in some ways more conventional."[30]
On December 10 at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies, Spalding performed at Oslo City Hall in honor of the 2009 Laureate U.S. President Barack Obama, and again at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert the following day. She was personally selected by Obama, as per the tradition of one laureate-invited-artist to perform.[31]
Spalding also was the featured final act for the opening night of the 2009 Park City Jazz Festival in Park City, Utah. She closed the show with a number along with bass artists Brian Bromberg and Sean O'Bryan Smith, who also performed earlier that day.[32]
As a tribute to Prince, Spalding was invited to sing along with Patti LaBelle, Alicia Keys and Janelle Monáe. Spalding performed the 1987 hit single "If I Was Your Girlfriend."[31][33]
On February 7, 2010, Spalding became the most searched person and second most searched item on Google Search as a result of her appearance the previous evening on the PBS television program Austin City Limits.[34][35]
Since 2011: Chamber Music Society and Radio Music Society
In November 2011, Spalding won "Jazz Artist of the Year" at the Boston Music Awards.[36]
Spalding collaborated with Tineke Postma on the track "Leave Me a Place Underground" from the album The Dawn of Light in 2011.[37]
She also collaborated with Terri Lyne Carrington on the album The Mosaic Project, where she features on the track "Crayola".[38]
Spalding sings a duet with Nicholas Payton on the track "Freesia" from the 2011 album Bitches of Renaissance.[39][40]
In the 53rd 2011 Grammy Awards, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, defeating teen pop recording artist Justin Bieber, indie rock band Florence and the Machine, folk band Mumford and Sons and hip-hop rapper Drake.[41][42] Bieber's fans
targeted Spalding on the Internet, stating that she was not as popular
as Bieber and that he should have won the award. They also incorrectly
edited her Wikipedia page.[43]
Chamber Music Society is the third album by Spalding. After her surprise Grammy win, the album re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 34 with sales of 18,000.[44] A video was made for the song "Little Fly".[45] The song is a poem by William Blake
set to music by Spalding. A vinyl version of the album was released in
February 2011. This version of the album included a bonus track,
"Morning", that is to be included in the tracklist of her upcoming Radio Music Society album.[46] Commenting on the album, NPR Music's
Patrick Jarenwattananon wrote that, "the finished product certainly
exudes a level of sophisticated intimacy, as if best experienced with a
small gathering in a quiet, wood-paneled room."[47]
Spalding was the best-selling contemporary jazz artist of 2011, and her album Chamber Music Society was the best-selling contemporary jazz album.[48]
On February 26, 2012, Spalding performed at the 84th Academy Awards, singing the Louis Armstrong standard "What a Wonderful World",
alongside the Southern California Children's Chorus to accompany the
video montage that celebrated the film industry greats who died in 2011
and early 2012.[49]
Radio Music Society is Spalding's fourth studio album, released by record label Heads Up International on March 20, 2012.[50][51][52] Spalding hoped this album would showcase jazz musicians in an accessible manner suitable for mainstream radio,[41] while incorporating her own musical compositions with covers of such artists as the Beach Boys and Wayne Shorter.
She also plans to record an album with Milton Nascimento in the future.[53]
Spalding appeared on Later... with Jools Holland.[54]
Spalding was featured on Janelle Monáe's album, The Electric Lady, on the track "Dorothy Dandridge Eyes." The album was released on September 10, 2013. She also sang a jazz duet on Bruno Mars' album, Unorthodox Jukebox), called "Old & Crazy".
In November 2013, Spalding released a protest/action single "We Are
America" to protest the Guantánamo prison camps, with cameo performances
by Stevie Wonder and Harry Belafonte.[55]
Artistry
Influences and attitude toward music and jazz
Spalding was mentored by Thara Memory.
She has cited jazz bassists Ron Carter and Dave Holland
as important influences on her music; Carter for the "orchestration" of
his playing and Holland for the way his compositional method
complements his personal style.[56] She has described the saxophone player Wayne Shorter,[13] and singer-songwriter Milton Nascimento, as heroes.[57] She has also noted her preference for the music of Brazil.[13]
Spalding has said she loves fusion music
and was influenced by a "wonderful arc that started 40 years ago where
people kept incorporating modern sounds into their music".[29]
She has expressed concerns that jazz has wandered from its roots,
suggesting that jazz has lost its street value and its relevance to "the
Black experience to the Black Diaspora and beyond" now that has been
co-opted by the "seasoned 'art' community".[7]
She has noted that, in its early days, jazz was "popular dance music"
and "the music of young people who considered themselves awfully hip",
and believes "hip-hop, or neo-soul [...] is our 'jazz' now as far as the role these genres play in the music genre lineage".[7]
Spalding, who has expressed a desire to be judged for her musicianship
rather than her sex appeal, believes that female musicians must take
responsibility to avoid oversexualizing themselves.[13][29] And, in order to write original music, one must read and stay informed about the world.[13] She has said she models her career on those of Madonna and Ornette Coleman.[12]
Spalding alternates between upright bass and bass guitar in her performances.
Instruments
Electric bass
Upright bass
Philanthropy
During her 2012 tour, Spalding donated a portion of proceeds from merchandise sales to the non-profit organization Free the Slaves.[60] The organization, based in Washington, D.C., works to combat human trafficking around the world.
Discography
Solo albums
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [61] | US Jazz [62] |
CAN | FRA [63] | NLD [64] | NOR [65] | SWE [66] | SWI [67] | |||
| Junjo |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Esperanza |
|
138 | 3 | — | — | — | 12 | 37 | — | |
| Chamber Music Society |
|
34 | 1 | 81 | 92 | 50 | 13 | — | — | |
| Radio Music Society |
|
10 | 1 | 41 | 54 | 59 | 33 | — | 75 | |
Music videos
| Song | Year |
|---|---|
| "Little Fly" | July 15, 2011 |
| "Black Gold" | January 31, 2012 |
| "Radio Song" | March 19, 2012 |
| "Crowned & Kissed" | June 29, 2012 |
| "I Can't Help It" | July 3, 2012 |
| "We Are America" | November 18, 2013 |
Collaborative albums
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | CAN | NOR | FRA | SWI | |||
| Blanket Music (with Noise For Pretend) |
|
– | – | – | – | – | |
| Happy You Near (with Noise For Pretend) |
|
– | – | – | – | – | |
| Transfiguration of Vincent (with M. Ward) |
|
– | – | – | – | – | |
| Duende (with Nando Michelin) |
|
– | – | – | – | – | |
| The Toys of Men (with Stanley Clarke) |
|
– | – | – | – | – | |
| Big Neighborhood (with Mike Stern) |
|
– | – | – | – | – | |
| Reencontro (with Nando Michelin) |
|
– | – | – | – | – | |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Event | Work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Grammy Awards | N/A | Best New Artist | Won |
| Boston Music Awards | N/A | Jazz Artist of the Year | Won | |
| 2012 | Smithsonian magazine's American Ingenuity Award | N/A | Performing Arts | Won |
| 2012 | Soul Train Music Awards | N/A | Best Contemporary Jazz Artist/ Group | Won |
| 2013 | Grammy Awards | "Radio Music Society" | Best Jazz Vocal Album | Won |
| "Radio Music Society" | Best Long Form Music Video | Nominated | ||
| "City Of Roses" | Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) | Won | ||
| 2014 | Grammy Awards | "Swing Low" | Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) | Won |
References
Further reading
- Murphy, Sarah, "Student Profile: Esperanza Spalding", Berklee College of Music, April 2004
- Colapinto, John (March 15, 2010). "Profiles: New Note". The New Yorker 86 (4): 32–39.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Esperanza Spalding. |
- esperanzaspalding
.com, her official website - Esperanza Spalding at AllMusic
- Esperanza Spalding interview for OnTheGig.com
- Esperanza Spalding Video Interview at allaboutjazz.com
- Who is Esperanza Spalding and how did she beat Justin Bieber? interview for Billboard.com
- Video: Performance and interview at The Roots Picnic (2011)
- Oregon Art Beat: Watch Esperanza Spalding Sing "City of Roses"