Variety Calls Esperanza Spalding "The It Girl of Jazz"

Friday June 11, 2010

(From Variety)

Spalding Returns to Playboy Jazz Fest

By: Steve Chagollan
Published: June 11, 2010

At age 25, it might feel like a bit too much pressure to be considered the “future of jazz,” but Esperanza Spalding, who is part of the Sunday lineup at this weekend’s Playboy Jazz Festival, carries herself with the kind of grace and poise that belies her years.

The native Oregonian (she’s from Portland) is back by popular demand, making a return engagement that’s rare for the program. Darlene Chan, who has produced the festival since its inception 32 years ago, says Spalding made quite an impression on the Playboy brass last year.

“She happened to be on when (Hugh) Hefner, who only comes on Saturday, was there,” recalls Chan. “And all the executives at Playboy were just knocked out by her. She’s the ‘it’ girl in jazz right now.”

Unless you’re one of a handful of contemporary jazz acts that includes Harry Connick, Jr., Michael Buble or Diana Krall, chances are you’ll sell only a fraction of the LPs that frequently turn up in the comprehensive album charts. But Spalding’s sophomore effort, “Esperanza,” finished in the top five of Billboard’s year-end Contemporary Jazz Artists chart for 2009. And it’s her blend of traditional jazz influences (she plays upright acoustic bass), lilting, untrained singing voice, natural songwriting ability and her youthful sex appeal that has the jazz world singing her praises.

“She’s great for jazz because she’s a great personality,” says Chan. “And it’s great to have a woman playing, too.”

Spalding sings in Portuguese on two of the tracks on “Esperanza”: “Ponta de Areia,” co-written by Milton Nascimento, and “Samba em Preludio,” written by the late Baden Powell, who, like Nascimento, is considered one of the great Brazilian guitarists of the 20th Century.

It was at the Berklee College of Music that Spalding was first exposed to the sounds of Brazil. “When I discovered Milton Nascimento,” says Spalding, “he became a huge source of inspiration on may levels. His lyric writing is very powerful and very poetic — just a very brave musician. He does whatever he feels and whatever he hears, and makes that work.”

This will actually be Spalding’s third appearance at the Playboy fest, since she played one year as a sideman with trumpeter Christian Scott before her debut last year as a leader. “They have more real jazz performers than a lot of other (jazz fests),” she says of Playboy, “really exceptional practitioners of this music. So on that level, the standards are very high — among the highest.”

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