A Conversation With Esperanza Spalding

Thursday March 24, 2011

From The Revivalist

A Conversation With Esperanza Spalding
By: Kyla Marshall

Esperanza Spalding was known in the jazz world long before her landmark Grammy win for “Best New Artist.” Adept in vocal and instrumental performance, composition, and with the ability to sing in three languages, it’s no surprise why. But as the following interview with The Revivalist illustrates, she is also deeply thoughtful and eloquent when it comes to explaining her ideas about art, music, and the factors that inspire her work.

Congratulations on your Grammy win. I’m sure you’re a lot more recognizable to the general public now. Do you feel prepared for stardom, or do you believe high-level fame is even a possibility for a jazz artist?

High-level fame—I don’t think there’s any value in that, in and of itself. For what any artist is striving for, artistically, high-level fame doesn’t translate to improved productivity, improved connectivity in their art. Is it possible? Yes. Anything’s possible. I mean, anything under the sun is possible. But what is the value of it? To sell more records? Cool. So that there’s more funding for other jazz musicians to make great music and be supported? Great. But for the sake of fame, it doesn’t contribute a whole lot to the artistry of the practitioner. So I guess if I were to answer the first question, “Am I ready for fame?” Well, there is no fame right now. Things are just like they were before the Grammys; I just get to do cooler interviews. People don’t recognize me at the airport, and I don’t think they particularly care, anyway. I’m just ready to continue growing and exploring the music, and trying to figure out what the hell I’m doing, and make the best work that I can—that’s what I’m prepared for. And anything that happens around that, as long as it’s positive, and helps me do my job better, and hopefully shines some light on the community that I’m a part of, I’ll take readily.

So would you say your recognition from the Academy can help, or will help, your peers and community of jazz artists?

I hope so. Improvised music based off of the jazz idiom—and not even improvised music—music that is cultivated and performed by people who are sort of coming from a school of jazz, or from a love of the music—I think the Academy is already really aware of it, and supports it. So it’s really sort of popular culture that isn’t as aware of it, and just isn’t as connected with it, because it’s not as easy to accept. It’s not on everybody’s radio. If you don’t live in a city that has a 24-hour jazz station, and you don’t turn the radio on at night, and you don’t own the records already, how are you exposed to it? How will you discover what’s happening out there? So if this brings the idiom as a whole more in the spotlight, and if some avenues open up for some of the incredible practitioners of this music because somehow people know who I am, then it will really be worth something.

To read the full interview click here

Radio Song (clip)	1:01	Esperanza Spalding
Black Gold	5:17	Esperanza Spalding

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Watch what's on

*Radio Music Society Trailer
Esperanza Spalding at the Oscars
Black Gold
Esperanza Spalding at the Nobel Prize Ceremony

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