Widely hailed as a child prodigy on the double bass within months of when she first cradled the imposing instrument as a 15 year old, Esperanza Spalding has hardly stopped to catch her breath in the six years since. Today the Portland, Oregon native is a teacher at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, where she balances a hectic schedule of performing with such jazz icons as tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and singer Patti Austin with composing and arranging for her own group.

She's already performed at many of the worlds leading jazz clubs, concert halls and festivals, including elite venues in Canada, the UK, Switzerland, the US and Brazil. And shes making her recording debut as a leader with "Junjo," a bracing trio session for the Barcelona, Spain-based AYVA Music label. Not bad for a 21 year old former high school dropout, and those who know this effervescent young woman the best believe shes just getting started.

"I was very, very blessed, she says of her good fortune of ending up at Berklee, the academic crossroads of the jazz universe. So many musicians pass through Berklee; its a major artery and I got to play with many great people. If you practice and you say, Hey, I'm not afraid to play with you, let's go, they'll give you a chance. That's how opportunities happen."

And what opportunities. Within a period of just three years, she landed ongoing engagements with Lovano and Austin and was able to work with such renowned artists as pianist Michel Camilo, bassist Charlie Haden, vibraphonist Dave Samuels, violinist Regina Carter and guitarist Pat Metheny, among many others. To a person, they were all duly impressed with the ambitious young woman's talent and professional attitude. She communicates her upbeat personality in everything she plays, comments noted Berklee alumnus and fabled jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton. She's definitely headed for a great career, and it will be soon.

Esperanza credits Public Television and the long-running childrens program 'Mr. Rogers Neighborhood' with igniting her interest in music. "I was about four years old, and Yo-Yo Ma came on, -she recalls. I told my mom, Oh, I want to play that! Actually, I started playing violin soon after and played it for about 11 years. I never really liked it that much, but I did learn a lot about music theory. When my mom went back to community college to study guitar, because she was a single mother, I'd go with her to all of her classes and sit there and soak it up."

Born in Portland in 1984, Esperanza's creative intuitions were not easily satisfied in the public school system. After dropping out, she was home schooled for a year before venturing back into the high school ranks as a 15 year old. While she still considered the classes boring, the experience did produce her first encounter with the acoustic bass.

"One day, I walked into the music room, and there was a new bass there the school had just bought, she remembers vividly. The music teacher taught me how to play some blues with that corny walking bass line, the 1-3-5-6 thing. -He said: Esperanza, you're really swinging! You mean to say you've never played bass before? I played for about an hour, and I got a blister about the size of a grape, but pretty much from that day on, playing the bass was an awesome thing. And the great thing was that, unlike the violin, where you get that ugly, scratchy sound, I could play and get a nice sound. I didn't know anything about jazz at that time, but playing the bass was just the coolest thing. It was so hip that you could just pick up an instrument and be making music, and it sounded great."

Finally dropping out of high school for good, she jumped right into classes at Portland State University as a 16 year old. It didnt take long before one of her professors recognized that her talent could be better served at a specialized institution like Berklee. She received a scholarship to the college, entered an accelerated degree program and earned her BA in just three years. In the spring of 2005, she was signed on as an instructor by none other than college president Roger Brown. They liked the idea of having an instructor the age of many of the students, Esperanza comments, someone who hadn't been seasoned in a university setting, and had actually been out playing and can talk to students about the realistic aspect of being young and making a career for themselves.
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In 2008, Spalding released "Esperanza" (on Heads Up Records), which proved a critical and commercial success. The album topped Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, where it remained for over 70 weeks. In addition, it became the best-selling album by a new jazz artist internationally during the year.

In August 2010, Spalding returned with "Chamber Music Society," a more stylistically expansive production that found her straddling the line between contemporary modern jazz, R&B, and Brazilian traditions. It included eight originals and three covers, and featured guest vocal appearances from Milton Nascimento and Gretchen Parlato, as well as a small string section, and guitarist Ricardo Vogt. The album reached number one on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, and helped earn Spalding the Grammy for Best New Artist.

On the heels of her Grammy attention, Spalding issued 2012's "Radio Music Society." Conceived as a companion piece to Chamber Music Society, the set featured drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and pianist Leo Genovese, with assistance from longtime collaborator saxophonist Joe Lovano and numerous guests, including drummers Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart, guitarists Jef Lee Johnson and Lionel Loueke, hip-hop producer and DJ Q-Tip, and a slew of vocalists, Parlato and Lalah Hathaway among them. Also well-received, it peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200 and earned Spalding her second Grammy Award, this time for Best Jazz Vocal Album. The following year, she popped up on several albums by other artists, including appearing on Janelle Monáe's The Electric Lady and Lovano's Cross Culture. Similarly, in 2014, Spalding was featured on vocalist Dianne Reeves' Beautiful Life and pianist Billy Childs' Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro.

In 2016, Spalding returned to her own work with "Emily's D+Evolution," an ambitious, prog rock-infused concept album revolving around a central character named Emily, Spalding's middle name. She followed that up in 2019 with another deeply artful concept album, the Grammy-nominated "Twelve Little Spells," which featured 12 songs each explicitly inspired by 12 separate parts of the body.

Matt Collar -All Music Guide