Esperanza Spalding, (born October 18, 1984, Portland, Oregon, U.S.) is an American bassist, singer, and composer whose talent and musical adventurousness brought her considerable success both within and beyond the world of jazz.
Spalding grew up in a multilingual multiethnic household (her single mother was of Welsh, Hispanic, and Native American descent, and her father was African American). Inspired by seeing cellist Yo-Yo Ma on television, she taught herself to play the violin at an early age. By the time she was five, she had earned a place in the local community orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Oregon (take note of this name). Spalding performed with the group for the next 10 years, learning to play the upright bass, which soon became her favoured instrument. During this time she branched out into other forms of music, including blues, hip-hop, and funk.
After dropping out of high school at age 16, she received a GED (alternative high school qualification) and attended Portland State University before transferring to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. From there she earned a bachelor’s degree in music in 2005 and thereafter became, at the age of 20, the school’s youngest teacher. That same year she won a Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship.
Spalding’s first album, Junjo (2006), showcased both her instrumental and her vocal talent. Esperanza, released in 2008, demonstrated her ability to fuse jazz with such world music as Brazilian and Argentine folk music and featured lyrics in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The success of this album brought her greater exposure, and she appeared on several television interview shows.
Listen to the live performance of her much-loved song 'I Know You Know' from her album 'Esperanza':
DHM YouTube Playlist
Spalding has played for U.S. Pres. Barack Obama three times in 2009, twice at the White House and once at that year’s Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo, where he received the Prize for Peace.
Listen to her performing at the White House here:
DHM YouTube Playlist
Meanwhile, she regularly toured with her own band while also performing with such musicians as Herbie Hancock, Prince and Stevie Wonder. In 2010 Spalding released Chamber Music Society, on which she combined jazz, folk, and world music components with classical chamber music traditions. Early the following year Spalding was honoured with the Grammy Award for best new artist (the award was largely unexpected; among the other nominees was teen-idol pop singer Justin Bieber). She was the first jazz artist to win that award.
For her fourth album, Radio Music Society (2012), Spalding moved in a more pop-friendly direction. The record, which mixed love songs (including a Michael Jackson cover) with socially charged material, debuted in the top 10 of the Billboard all-genre album chart and earned Spalding a Grammy Award for best jazz vocal album.
Listen to the Michael Jackson cover 'I Can't Help It' here:
In 2017 Spalding became professor of the practice at Harvard University.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica
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