HEADS UP INTRODUCES ESPERANZA
SPALDING,
A BRILLIANT NEW TALENT ON THE JAZZ HORIZON
Acoustic Bassist/Vocalist/Composer’s Self-Titled Debut
Set For Worldwide Release On May 20, 2008
Every few years, a new artist comes along with talent and
potential so great that it challenges and redefines the common
perceptions of what jazz is and where it’s heading.
The new light on the horizon may be a compelling vocalist
one year, or perhaps an unmatched instrumental virtuoso a
few years later, or maybe a brilliant composer a few more
years down the road.
Bassist/vocalist/composer Esperanza Spalding is all of these
things and more. And she will, in fact, challenge and expand
your perceptions of jazz.
Esperanza (HUCD 3140), her debut on Heads
Up International, is set for worldwide release on May 20,
2008. Armed with uncanny instrumental chops, a siren voice
that spans three languages, and composing and arranging skills
that weave together the best elements of the old-school with
the progressive, this 23-year-old has crafted a debut album
that takes a completely fresh and refreshing approach to jazz
by incorporating the rich traditions of soul, pop, world music
and so much more.
Her accelerated backstory follows a breathtaking arc. A musical
prodigy since her childhood in Portland, Oregon, Esperanza
enrolled at Berklee College of Music at 16 and not only excelled
there but eventually became the youngest professor in the
school’s history. Before finishing school, she had already
landed coveted touring gigs and recording projects with the
likes of Patti Austin, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny and other luminaries
who were, in many cases, the shining lights of their own generations.
But even with all this early success, Esperanza approached
her Heads Up debut album with an unwavering work ethic and
a fierce sense of commitment to making a recording that not
only captures who and where she is now, but offers a glimpse
of all that she could yet achieve. “In preparing for
this album, I worked really hard on my playing, my singing,
my composition, everything,” she says. “I’m
confident and I’m proud of what came out. I feel like
it represents me at this time, and it shows the world what
I’m capable of.”
HEADS
UP INTRODUCES ESPERANZA SPALDING,
A BRILLIANT NEW TALENT ON THE JAZZ HORIZON
Acoustic Bassist/Vocalist/Composer’s Self-Titled
Debut
Set For Worldwide Release On May 20, 2008
Every few years, a new artist comes along with talent and potential
so great that it challenges and redefines the common perceptions
of what jazz is and where it’s heading. The new light
on the horizon may be a compelling vocalist one year, or perhaps
an unmatched instrumental virtuoso a few years later, or maybe
a brilliant composer a few more years down the road.
Bassist/vocalist/composer Esperanza Spalding is all of these
things and more. And she will, in fact, challenge and expand
your perceptions of jazz.
Esperanza (HUCD 3140), her debut on Heads Up
International, is set for worldwide release on May 20, 2008.
Armed with uncanny instrumental chops, a siren voice that spans
three languages, and composing and arranging skills that weave
together the best elements of the old-school with the progressive,
this 23-year-old has crafted a debut album that takes a completely
fresh and refreshing approach to jazz by incorporating the rich
traditions of soul, pop, world music and so much more.
Her accelerated backstory follows a breathtaking arc. A musical
prodigy since her childhood in Portland, Oregon, Esperanza enrolled
at Berklee College of Music at 16 and not only excelled there
but eventually became the youngest professor in the school’s
history. Before finishing school, she had already landed coveted
touring gigs and recording projects with the likes of Patti
Austin, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny and other luminaries who were,
in many cases, the shining lights of their own generations.
But even with all this early success, Esperanza approached her
Heads Up debut album with an unwavering work ethic and a fierce
sense of commitment to making a recording that not only captures
who and where she is now, but offers a glimpse of all that she
could yet achieve. “In preparing for this album, I worked
really hard on my playing, my singing, my composition, everything,”
she says. “I’m confident and I’m proud of
what came out. I feel like it represents me at this time, and
it shows the world what I’m capable of.”
Esperanza is joined in the studio by a crew of A-list session
players, including flamenco guitar virtuoso Niño Josele,
percussionist Jamey Haddad, drummer Horacio “El Negro”
Hernández, saxophonist Donald Harrison and several other
seasoned talents – all of whom collectively serve as further
evidence of the kind of creative energy and magnetism that she
radiates.
“All of us had the same intentions in the studio,”
she says. “Everybody really gave everything we could give,
because we really wanted it to be the best that it could possibly
be. It was like a family affair. There are things on there that
you’ll dig if you’re a jazz listener, and things
you’ll dig if you’re not a jazz listener. That’s
the objective – to serve as many people as possible with
the music.”
The album opens with the “Ponta de Areia,” the Brant
Fernando Rocha / Milton Nascimento composition made famous in
the jazz world by Wayne Shorter on his Native Dancer album in
1974. Esperanza delivers the lyrics in Portuguese, with a vocal
line that’s smooth and never the least bit strained. Backed
by Haddad, pianist Leo Genovese, vocalist Gretchen Parlato and
drummer Otis Brown III, she takes the song on a journey that’s
exploratory where it needs to be, yet never prone to disharmony.
“Fall In” is Esperanza’s own composition,
arranged for vocals and piano, with Genovese creating a lush
bed for lyrics that ponder the potential hazards of romantic
love but soar at the same time: “They say if you live
in a dream you’re hopelessly lost / Well this ain’t
just any old dream for our paths have crossed / And I may be
hopelessly lost / But somehow I’ve managed to find heaven
/ And I won’t worry if we fall in love / We will never
touch the ground / Just fall into a dream…”
Esperanza takes the bold step with a 5/4 time signature interpretation
of “Cuerpo Y Alma” (“Body and Soul”)
by singing an American jazz standard in Spanish. “The
second-to-last syllable is always the one that gets the emphasis
in Spanish, and that really doesn’t work for American
jazz,” she explains. “It’s pretty much the
opposite of the way we emphasize English lyrics in American
jazz. So that was the challenge – whether I could make
‘Body and Soul,’ this well known American jazz song,
swing in Spanish. In the end, I think it’s pretty killin.’”
If esperanza is the Spanish word for hope, then “Espera”
is an apt title for a song that defies the cynicism of our age
and envisions a better world. She sings: “I’ll keep
the faith, like so many souls who won’t be drowned by
evil in the world / I have faith in mankind, that we can guide
our choices towards a healthy world in time to ease our bind
/ For only hard work through time can change men’s minds
/ I know if we make some small changes now / We’ll heal
ourselves, some way, somehow…”
“Samba Em Preludio” is the silky, atmospheric closer
driven by the minimal arrangement of Esperanza’s bass
and vocals (lyrics sung in Portuguese) accompanied by Spain’s
flamenco sensation Niño Josele’s subtly textured
guitar. “I’m proud of my singing on this song, and
the arrangement that Niño did is so amazing,” she
says. “I sent him this bare-bones track, and he painted
a beautiful landscape with it.
For as bold a statement as Esperanza Spalding makes in her Heads
Up debut album, the obvious truth by the end of twelve tracks
is that what we’re hearing is just a taste of what’s
to come from this bright young star. But as first steps go,
Esperanza is a giant leap. “They say
you’re never supposed to apologize for your art, and I’m
totally unapologetic,” she says. “I have complete
confidence that this is the best record I could make, and I
have the same confidence that it’s just the beginning.
There are so many different things that these songs are about,
so many different colors, that the only consistent theme throughout
the record is me. I had my hand in so many parts of this record,
and I was so adamant about keeping it how I originally envisioned
it. This record really is as close to me as you can get.”
If “esperanza” is the Spanish
word for hope, then bassist, vocalist and composer Esperanza
Spalding could not have been given a more fitting name at birth.
Blessed with uncanny instrumental chops, a multi-lingual voice
that is part angel and part siren, and a natural beauty that
borders on the hypnotic, the 25-year-old prodigy-turned-pro
might well be the hope for the future of jazz and instrumental
music.
“She is an irresistible performer,” says The
Seattle Times. “She sings and plays bass at the same
time and does a sort of interpretive dance as she plays…Her
analysis of what’s going on in jazz today is perceptive.”
Irresistible. Interpretive. Perceptive. Such words are very
much at the core of Spalding’s life story, but the story
is anything but typical. She was born in 1984 and raised on
what she calls “the other side of the tracks” in
a multi-lingual household and neighborhood in Portland, Oregon.
Growing up in a single-parent home amid economically adverse
circumstances, she learned early lessons in the meaning of perseverance
and moral character from the role model whom she holds in the
highest regard to this day – her mother.
“She was very strong-willed, very independent,”
says Spalding. “She did a million things. She was a baker,
a carpenter, she worked in foster care homes, she worked in
food service, she worked with Cesar Chavez as a labor organizer.
She was an amazing woman. She was hip enough to put a lot of
negative things I saw as a child into some kind of context –
even before I fully understood what she was saying.”
But even with a rock-solid role model, school did not come easy
to Spalding, although not for any lack of intellectual acumen.
She was both blessed and cursed with a highly intuitive learning
style that often put her at odds with the traditional education
system. On top of that, she was shut in by a lengthy illness
as a child, and as a result, was home-schooled for a significant
portion of her elementary school years. In the end, she never
quite adjusted to learning by rote in the conventional school
setting.
“It was just hard for me to fit into a setting where I
was expected to sit in a room and swallow everything that was
being fed to me,” she recalls. “Once I figured out
what it was like to be home-schooled and basically self-taught,
I couldn’t fit back into the traditional environment.”
However, the one pursuit that made sense to Spalding from a
very early age was music. At age four, after watching classical
cellist Yo Yo Ma perform on an episode of Mister Rogers’
Neighborhood, the roadmap was suddenly very clear. “That
was when I realized that I wanted to do something musical,”
she says. “It was definitely the thing that hipped me
to the whole idea of music as a creative pursuit.”
Within a year, she had essentially taught herself to play the
violin well enough to land a spot in The Chamber Music Society
of Oregon, a community orchestra that was open to both children
and adult musicians. She stayed with the group for ten years,
and by age 15, she had been elevated to a concertmaster position.
But by then, she had also discovered the bass, and all of the
non-classical avenues that the instrument could open for her.
Suddenly, playing classical music in a community orchestra wasn’t
enough for this young teenager anymore. Before long she was
playing blues, funk, hip-hop and a variety of other styles on
the local club circuit. “The funny thing was, I was the
songwriter, but I had never experienced love before. Being the
lyricist and the lead singer, I was making up songs about red
wagons, toys and other childish interests. No one knew what
I was singing about, but they liked the sound of it and they
just ate it up.”
At 16, Spalding left high school for good. Armed with her GED
and aided by a generous scholarship, she enrolled in the music
program at Portland State University. “I was definitely
the youngest bass player in the program,” she says. “I
was 16, and I had been playing the bass for about a year and
a half. Most of the cats in the program had already had at least
eight years of training under their belts, and I was trying
to play in these orchestras and do these Bach cello suites.
It wasn’t really flying, but if nothing else, my teachers
were saying, ‘Okay, she does have talent.’”
Berklee College of Music was the place where the pieces all
came together and doors started opening. After a move to the
opposite coast and three years of accelerated study, she not
only earned a B.M., but also signed on as an instructor in 2005
at the age of 20 – an appointment that has made her the
youngest faculty member in the history of the college. She was
the 2005 recipient of the prestigious Boston Jazz Society scholarship
for outstanding musicianship.
In addition to the studying and the teaching, the Berklee years
have also created a host of networking opportunities. Spalding had the chance to work with several notable artists, including pianist Michel Camilo, vibraphonist Dave Samuels, bassist Stanley Clarke, guitarist Pat Metheny, singer Patti Austin, and saxophonists Donald Harrison and Joe Lovano. “Working with Joe was terrifying,” she recalls, “but he’s a really generous person. I don’t know if I was ready for the gig or not, but he had a lot of faith in me. It was an amazing learning experience.”
The newest chapter of Spalding’s journey began with the May 2008 release of Esperanza, her debut recording for Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group, which went on to become the best selling album by a new jazz artist worldwide in 2008. The highly acclaimed release was the first opportunity for a worldwide audience to witness her mesmerizing talents as an instrumentalist, vocalist and composer. The New York Times raved, “Esperanza has got a lot: accomplished jazz improvisation, funk, scat singing, Brazilian vernacular rhythm and vocals in English, Portuguese and Spanish. At its center is a female bassist, singer and bandleader, one whose talent is beyond question.”
Soon after release, Esperanza went straight to the top of Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart where it remained for over 70 weeks. Spalding was booked on the Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live, the CBS Saturday Early Show, the Tavis Smiley Show, Austin City Limits and National Public Radio. Other highlights included two appearances at the White House, a Banana Republic ad campaign, the Jazz Journalists Association’s 2009 Jazz Award for Up and Coming Artist of the Year, and many high profile tour dates, including Central Park SummerStage in New York and the Newport Jazz Festival. 2009 was capped by an invitation from President Obama to perform at both the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway – where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded – and also at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert.
Esperanza was just the start of what this gifted young artist hopes to achieve in a career where the creative opportunities are almost limitless. “I think there are some outside forces that have blessed me with creative talents, and I don’t want to disrespect whatever plan the cosmos or the heavens or God or whoever might have for me,” Spalding explains. “But based on what I know about myself right now, what I really want to do is reach people. I want to make great music, but I also want to use that talent to lift people up, and maybe show them some degree of hope where there might not be any in their lives. My name means ‘hope’ in Spanish, and it’s a name I want to live up to.”
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