Esperanza Spalding Returns to Where She First Found Her Groove

Friday October 01, 2010

From the Boston Globe

Home bass: Spalding returns to where she first found her groove
By Valerie Gladstone

NEW YORK — With her outsize Afro, petite build, and straightforward manner, bassist, vocalist, and composer Esperanza Spalding doesn’t look the part of a rising star. But after just a few short years in the public eye, she’s shown enough understated glamour, talent, intelligence, and wit to win over multitudes of fans, in and outside of the jazz world.

At 25, Spalding’s taking risks most musicians don’t get near. Consider, for example, her new album, “Chamber Music Society,’’ which soared to the top of iTunes, Amazon, and Billboard’s jazz charts upon its release in August. An arresting collection of original songs for string ensemble and jazz trio, it highlights her command of both classical and jazz traditions, as well as her knack for spicing up almost any melody with funk, bossa nova, or tango rhythms.

“I feel safe on the bandstand,’’ she says on the phone from her Manhattan apartment, “safe in my own skin. People sometimes tell me I’m brave musically. I’m not brave. When I’m playing, it’s like I’m talking to someone I love about what’s meaningful.’’

Read the entire article 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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