Esperanza Spalding: Multicultural Marvel

Sunday August 19, 2012

From The San Diego Union-Tribune

MULTICULTURAL MARVEL: Esperanza Spalding easily hops from jazz to Latin to chamber music
By: George Varga

Last year, Esperanza Spalding shocked the music world — and millions of TV viewers — when she beat out teen-pop superstar Justin Bieber and hip-hop favorite Drake to become the first jazz artist in history to win a Grammy Award as Best New Artist. The result? Near-death threats from some apoplectic Bieber fans and one of the biggest Grammy-fueled jumps in album sales ever recorded.

But Spalding was a budding multicultural phenomenon even before her surprise Grammy victory, as befits an artist of African-American, Native American, Asian, Welsh and Spanish descent who sings in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Her Tuesday performance here at the 1,400-seat Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay is a prelude to her Wednesday show with R&B star Anita Baker at the nearly 18,000-seat Hollywood Bowl.

A virtuoso bassist, Spalding is equally adept performing and fusing jazz, funk, Latin, pop and chamber music. Before her Grammy win, she had already twice performed at the White House and at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway, where she appeared at the personal request of President Barack Obama.

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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
Black Gold
Esperanza Spalding at the Nobel Prize Ceremony
Esperanza Spalding at the Oscars

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