Esperanza Spalding | Artist
Esperanza Spalding is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer born 1984 in Portland Oregon. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, a Soul Train Music Award, and two honorary doctorates: one from Berklee College of Music and one from the California Institute of the Arts. Born to an African American father and a mother of Welsh, Native American, and Hispanic descent, Spalding was raised in the King neighborhood of northeast Portland, an area known for gang violence. Her mother raised her and her brother as a single parent. During her childhood, Spalding had juvenile idiopathic arthritis, resulting in her spending much of her elementary school years being home-schooled. She began playing music professionally in her childhood, as a violinist in the Chamber Music Society of Oregon at age five. She later trained on the guitar and bass. Her proficiency earned her music scholarships to Portland State University and Berklee College of Music, both of which she attended. Spalding released her first album, Junjo, in 2006 on the Spanish label Ayva Musica, after which she signed with the independent American label Heads Up, who released her 2008 self-titled album. Her third studio album, Chamber Music Society (2010), was a commercial success, charting at #34 on Billboard, and winning her first Grammy Award for Best New Artist. She saw further acclaim for her fourth release, Radio Music Society (2012), which earned the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, as well as the track "City of Roses" winning for Best Arrangement, Instrument and Vocals. After spending several years performing as a member of Joe Lovano's Plus Five outfit, Spalding released her fifth studio album, a funk rock-inspired concept album titled Emily's D+Evolution, co-produced by Tony Visconti. The following year she released the album Exposure, then her sixth studio record, 12 Little Spells, was released in 2019, hitting #1 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums. That album also saw Spalding nominated for two Grammy Awards, winning in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category. Fron her current discography of nine studio and 2 live albums, standouts include Esperanza (2008), Chamber Music society (2010), Emily's D+Evolution (2016), 12 Little Spells (2018), and her latest album Milton + esperanza (2024) which is a collaboration with legendary Brazilian musician Milton Nascimento. Spalding has an interest in the music of other cultures, including that of Brazil, where she once spent a month learning Portuguese. She has said that the melody and language of songs in Portuguese are inextricably connected. She sings in several languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. In addition to writing and performing music, Spalding has also worked as an instructor, first at the Berklee College of Music, beginning at age 20. In 2017, Spalding was appointed professor of the practice of music at Harvard University, a position from which she resigned in 2022, citing Harvard's hesitancy to incorporate changes to the curriculums she taught, as well as their unwillingness to redistribute some of its subjugated land to create a safe space for artists of color. Spalding's mother took note of her daughter's musical proclivity when Spalding was able to reproduce Beethoven by ear on the family's piano at a young age. Spalding herself credited watching classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood as an integral part of her childhood, and it inspired her to pursue music.
Artist Website: esperanzaspalding.com
Featured Albums: Esperanza Spalding
Related Artists: Milton Nascimento, Joe Lovano Us Five
