Esperanza Spalding

[Larry Kart]

She purddy.

She looks like one of the Jackson 5 in a dress.

[JSngry]

That's better than a walking STD, no?

[Bright Moments]

[Larry Kart]

That's better than a walking STD, no?

YMMV, but I'd say not better -- provided (in the case of that particular walking STD) you're forewarned, take precautions, and disguise your identity (to me, she looked potentially vengeful/dangerous if crossed).

[jlhoots]

Just a 23 year old musician trying to make HER way in the world.

Some of you are overly agitated in a negative way.

As Cedric The Entertainer once said "it ain't that bad".

[catesta]

yeah and some of you guys are creepy perverts, no offense,

walking STD? did you see that clip i put in the "what is growing near you" thread?

What about it?

[Van Basten II]

[Larry Kart]

yeah and some of you guys are creepy perverts, no offense,

walking STD? did you see that clip i put in the "what is growing near you" thread?

Just to be clear, my "walking STD" remarks were not a reference to Spalding but to what I said (JSngry has a good memory) a few weeks ago about a red-haired TV actress (don't recall her name) whose photo Bright Moments placed at the bottom of his posts at that time.

[Alexander]

Whatta shock! Clem has something to say on the subject! And he name drops a bunch of other artists he thinks is worthy of more attention! THAT guy's sure not predictable! No, sir!

I especially liked the part where he implies that Spalding is getting so much attention because she's light skinned. Gotta get that race baiting in there!

For those who think she's too young, hasn't paid any dues, is simply yet another Norah-like product of the media machine, I direct your attention to this 2004 article that was posted on her Berklee student profile:

Esperanza Spalding

By Sarah Murphy

Berklee.edu Correspondent

April 2004

Esperanza Spalding was 15 years old when she entered the world of the working musician at a Portland, Oregon, blues club, armed with a single bass line.

"Somehow I got this gig with a blues band. I don't know how. I could play only the blues in F," she says.

Every member of the band was a seasoned veteran. Lead vocalist Sweet Baby James Benton had been a fixture on the Portland jazz scene since the 1950s. The trumpet player used to gig with Ornette Coleman. But they were eager to replace their bassist. Somehow, someone turned them on to Esperanza, who had only been playing the instrument for a couple of months.

After that first performance, one of the musicians pulled her aside and asked her to rehearse with them "so she could actually learn something." It turned into a weekly gig and an invaluable experience that fostered Esperanza's interest in the bass and did wonders for her rhythmic feel.

Within a year, Esperanza was gigging as a bassist and/or vocalist with "maybe six or seven" different groups throughout the Portland area, including two jazz septets, a trio, and a fusion group called Noise for Pretend that released two well-received albums on the independent label Hush Records.

With all those gigs and a full-time job, going to Berklee was the last thing on her mind. Esperanza never much liked school, anyway. She was home-schooled for most of her childhood. Then at 14, she earned a scholarship to a prestigious high school.

"It was horrible. I hated it, so I didn't ever go. It wasn't a good place for me," she says. "But the good thing is that by the end I had picked up the bass."

The way Esperanza tells it, her first encounter with the bass was purely accidental. Goofing around the band room one day, she grabbed the instrument and started noodling.

"At the same moment that I happened to pick it up the music teacher came in and says, 'Oh, you want to play bass?' We were both just kidding. But then he says, 'Here's a blues.' He taught me a bass line and I played it." It was that bass line that got Esperanza through her first gig.

But she was miserable in high school, so she dropped out, passed her GED, and enrolled at a local university. Not much happier there, her bass teacher convinced her to apply to Berklee. She was awarded a full scholarship; still, she never believed she would actually make it to Boston, because she didn't have the money for living expenses.

"It got to be June. I didn't even have a plane ticket and I definitely didn't have an apartment," she says. "A friend suggested a benefit concert. But I don't have a big ego like that, so I was like, no no no."

Esperanza's friends and fans secretly organized the benefit, raising about a thousand dollars. And so she decided to give Boston a try. But after buying a plane ticket and shipping her bass, she had only $400 left. Within a few weeks that money was gone. Although she was fortunate to be living rent free with a family friend in a suburb south of the city, the commute was grueling. She had to walk two miles to the train station with her bass every day.

"It was awful. I had a wheel [on the case] that was very testy, but I couldn't afford to buy another one," she says. Then in November it turned cold, and Esperanza got a taste of her first New England winter, rolling her bass through the snow. "By the end of the first semester I was so worn out from the commute and having no money, I just wanted to leave."

In addition to the financial hardships, she wasn't sure if she even liked the college. Never a fan of formal academics, she found the course work confining. And, the sometimes intense competition among the student body was tough for her to accept at first.

"You get these knots inside you. And you find all these places that you're vulnerable where you weren't vulnerable before. And it's all because you can't play a line as nice as somebody else. Who cares anyway?"

Pretty much all musicians will say they play music for the joy of it. But with Esperanza, one gets the feeling that if it ever stopped being fun, she would quit in a heartbeat. Which is why – with so many obstacles to her personal happiness – it's amazing that she not only survived her first semester, she quickly became one of the most in-demand musicians at the school.

Reluctant to take credit for her success, Esperanza claims some cosmic force was at work. "You have to understand," she says. "I'm here because somebody up in the heavens must love me or something."

Executive Vice President Gary Burton, who has worked closely with Esperanza, begs to differ. A tough critic and a demanding teacher, he has high praise for the young musician.

"She has a great time feel, she can confidently read the most complicated compositions, and she communicates her upbeat personality in everything she plays," he says. "She is definitely headed for a great career, and it will be soon."

In fact, Esperanza's career is already well under way. At the end of that tough first semester, she was hired to tour with Patti Austin – an ongoing gig that took her to Italy this summer. She performs frequently in the Boston area as both a bassist and vocalist. She recently was chosen to sing in the college's jazz vocal series. And this past spring, she recorded one of her original tunes with a Berklee student group, under the guidance of producer Pat Metheny.

Still, she's extremely modest about her accomplishments. "I make progress slowly," says the 19-year-old who, less than five years ago, had never even touched an upright bass.

Esperanza likes to say it was an accident that she started playing the bass, and it was a miracle she ever made it to Berklee. It's probably an even bigger miracle that she stayed. But while fate and chance may have played a part in getting Esperanza where she is today, talent like hers is no accident.

Esperanza's Top Five

• God (or whatever word is used to describe the core beliefs of each person)

• Mom and brother

• Being with good people

• Making music

• Listening to music

[Bright Moments]

[trane_fanatic]

She's performing at Yoshi's Oakland this Thursday. Heard one of her tracks on a jazz radio show last night. Not bad at all.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../PKKO10UG7L.DTL

Bassist Esperanza Spalding: Hope fulfilled

Lee Hildebrand

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Esperanza Spalding found high school quite boring. One day while cutting class, Spalding, then 15, wandered into an empty band room, spotted an upright bass and, on a whim, began plucking it. The experience changed her life.

"If you never played a bass before and you pick it up and play a note, it's like the vibration just trips you out," recalls Spalding, who at age 23 is the most talked-about young jazz bassist on the planet. "If you've never done it, it's like, wow. It's so low. The vibration travels through your body, and you hear it in your head. The first thing I did on the bass was I put my head on it and played a note. I just heard the sound of the instrument, and that's what I fell in love with - that sound."

Not only has Spalding's ability to improvise bass lines while at the same time singing - in English, Spanish and Portuguese - been turning many heads of late, but her thrift-store-chic attire prompted the Boston Globe to name her one of the 25 most stylish Bostonians of 2007. She now resides in Jersey City, N.J., but remains on the faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston. She was hired as an instructor by the prestigious school after her graduation two years ago, becoming the second-youngest person, after her friend Pat Metheny, to serve in that capacity. She is on sabbatical to promote her first domestically released CD, "Esperanza," on the Heads Up International label.

Her auburn hair in a bushy Afro, Spalding wears a brown-and-white dress made of recycled cloth for a one-song performance at a San Francisco hotel as part of the 2008 National Association of Recording Merchandisers Convention.

Joined by pianist Leo Genovese and drummer Otis Brown, up-and-comer Spalding begins her segment of the Tuesday morning showcase as scheduled, at exactly 9:58 a.m. Six and a half minutes later, after she finishes singing and playing "Precious," a lilting yet rhythmically adventurous self-penned love song from her CD, the audience of 800, including representatives of such firms as Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon and iTunes, roars in stunned approval.

Jazz, throughout its history, has had its share of singing pianists and singing guitarists, but upright bassists of note who've sung while playing can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Slam Stewart, Major Holly, Red Mitchell, Jay Leonhart and now Spalding. Doing so, she says, isn't all that easy.

"The energy it takes to split your brain to be a lead instrument (vocalist) and an accompanying instrument (bassist) is tricky," the Portland-born musician says after her convention performance. "With my group, even though we do sing set melodies, there's still a whole lot of improvisation in the vocal part. It's like I'm leading the band in one direction with the voice and then in another direction with the bass."

Spalding, who dropped out of high school at 16 but eventually earned a GED, insists that she's not trying to show off by doing so many different things - playing bass, singing in three languages and sometimes utilizing odd time signatures. On "Esperanza," for instance, she plays "Body and Soul" in 5/4 and sings in Spanish.

"I don't try to do anything that isn't natural for me," says Spalding, who played classical violin as a child. "If I can do those things and they fit, why not? They evolved bit by bit along with what the music called for. First, someone asked me to sing in the band, and I said, 'OK. Let's try that.' From learning the tunes, the singing and playing in jazz came together. And as I evolved as a musician, I started hearing more influences from music that had Spanish as a main language and Portuguese as a main language, music that had bass more in the forefront, music that had scatting. All the things kind of cultivated into my sound.

"I can see where a listener might say, 'Wow, there's so many things going on here; it's such a mishmash of different sounds and colors and styles.' But I think that the music is sincere enough and unique enough that you'll hear my heart in it. I came to the music out of love, just to play the bass, so when you know you're going to be doing it for a real long time, you know that you don't have to prove anything. I know that I'm 23. As a jazz musician, this is like infancy, so I'll be the last person to say, 'Yeah, I'm doing some stuff. Check this out.' It's not like that at all. It's a really long, long road, so there's nothing to prove. It'll speak for itself."

Spalding's music has an international flair. Pianist Genovese is Argentine, and her guitarist, Ricardo Vogt, is Brazilian. Drummer Brown is from New Jersey. Spalding's management company, Montuno Productions, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, also represents Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club. Her first CD, "Junjo," was released two years ago by the Ayva label, also in Barcelona.

Since the release of "Esperanza" last month, the bassist has been busy touring the United States and Europe with her group. Spalding, who has worked in groups led by vocalist Patti Austin and saxophonist Joe Lovano, is hoping, however, that her days as a side person are not entirely behind her.

"Anybody who's really challenging as a musician and kind enough to invite me to play with them, I'll try to do it as much as I can," she says. "It's a pleasure to just be free on the bass and just focus all my energy on functioning as a bass player. It's more fun in a way, because I can totally concentrate on playing bass. I feel spoiled when I get to do that."

[phunkey]

A live recording from her trio at the 2007 Copenhagen Jazz Festival was available at dime a while ago - not sure whether it still is. Her trio with amazing pianist Leo Genovese and drummer Lyndon Rochelle is certainly worthwhile looking out for.

[Bright Moments]

i prefer the first cd to the new one - but both are pleasant evening fare.

[Rooster_Ties]

If she's good enough for Greg Osby, then that's some pretty decent cred right there, no? (sound quality ain't perfect, but what is?)

I've never owned any of Norah's CD's, but I've heard a couple -- and they're quite lovely for what they are. Probably the same with Esperanza too, judging from these Youtube clips...

Youtube search on "Esperanza Spalding".

Edited August 5, 2008 by Rooster_Ties

[Rooster_Ties]

ain't nothing wrong with this...

- Lunchtime in Zuccotti Park, New York City.

...and I ain't much of a fan of jazz vocalists either.

Edited August 5, 2008 by Rooster_Ties

[oneofanotherkind]

Barack's invited Esperanza to play at The White House in the Stevie Wonder Library of Congress Award tribute concert ...

... anyone know how to score some tix ?

[Uncle Skid]

Just a 23 year old musician trying to make HER way in the world.

Some of you are overly agitated in a negative way.

As Cedric The Entertainer once said "it ain't that bad".

My 15-year old daughter asked me to download "Esperanza" for her, from eMusic. I had never heard of Ms. Spalding, and my daughter says "you might like this, Dad -- it's kind of jazzy".

I've listened to a couple of tracks, and it really "ain't that bad". One track in particular, "Mela", struck me as very interesting.

[jazzbo]

Barack's invited Esperanza to play at The White House in the Stevie Wonder Library of Congress Award tribute concert ...

... anyone know how to score some tix ?

That was broadcast on PBS. Was an okay show.

[BFrank]

Esperanza got an hour on Austin City Limits tonight. I watched most of it.

She had her "big band" with her that had a more varied mix of races and genders than you usually see in this context.

I was having trouble "getting" the tunes, though. They seemed sort of formless to me, and jumped around quite a bit from funk to big band to even some outside playing. That, in addition to her rather thin voice made it hard for me to latch on to anything.

But maybe I'm missing something. She certainly seems to be on a fast track in the music biz.

[ejp626]

I think it's fine that she is doing well for herself. The business is the business.

So I've seen her live and heard a couple of radio concerts. And her work leaves me absolutely cold. And the hype somehow does make it worse for me.

I mean I don't dog her out in mixed company or anything, but if I can help it I won't listen to her again in this lifetime.

Am I a "hater"? I guess so.

[JSngry]

Holy shit! Minnie Riperton & Charles Stepney reincarnating in disguise on ABC, live, with invisible Bachrach offstage! Did not see that one coming, glad I looked! (and yes, looked as well as listened, these are some pretty stealth "optics" going on here).

 

[Chuck Nessa]

70's again?

[Larry Kart]

I caught Minnie Riperton and the Buddy Rich Band at the Electronic Playground in Chicago in 1970. Dan Morgenstern and I were there to talk to Rich.

[JSngry]

70's again?

 

As I remember them? As a whole? No.

That's one helluva song. I'm not usually a lyrics matter guys, and this is no exception, but jesus, those changes and that melody...

Edited October 24, 2015 by JSngry

[Carl Baugher]

She is, by no means, talentless and a case could be made for her as a quality singer, I suppose. But as a bassist, she's quite over-rated. Her intonation is inconsistent (although she is naturally more accurate on a fretless bass guitar than a contrabass) and her chops are nothing that really distinguishes her playing. She has found a niche, however, based on qualities that she does possess. But it's problematic to call her a "great bassist" as some have. I see her more as a pop artist, frankly. And she seems to have found a place based on her social messages, identity, etc. Good for her.