Esperanza Spalding
| |
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 world’s leading jazz clubs, concert halls and festivals, including elite venues in Canada, the UK, Switzerland, the US and Brazil. And she’s 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 she’s 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; it’s 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 children’s program Mr. Roger’s 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 didn’t 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.”
|
