Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Emily Spalding is an American jazz bassist, cellist, singer, and songwriter. Spalding was raised in Portland, Oregon and was a musical prodigy, playing violin in the Chamber Music Society of Oregon at age five. She was later both self-taught and -trained on a number of instruments, including guitar and bass. Her proficiency earned her scholarships to Portland State University and the Berklee College of Music...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJazz Singer
Date of Birth18 October 1984
CountryUnited States of America
The Czech ease has become my saving grace for traveling! Plus,with its light weight and small size, I save thousands of dollars every year in airline fees.
Jazz music just resonates with the frequency of me.
For what I can imagine and feel and think and hear, I can hardly do anything on the acoustic bass. It used to be just pure frustration of imagining so much more and being able to get to a certain level of execution.
I am insubordinate by nature. I can't help it.
There's the juiciest music that makes me so happy, music that I need on that deserted island when I'm stranded for the rest of my life, and nobody cares that it's there.
It's weird sometimes to have people not see me or see what I do.
I did grow up in a rough neighborhood in Portland, which is an abstract concept for anybody who's rolled through Portland because now it looks like a TV set, literally.
I just think music is so intrinsically linked with images in the culture that we live in that youll be hard-pressed to have an experience with the music without a preconceived notion.
My name means 'hope' in Spanish and it's a name I want to live up to.
When people say, "Oh, she plays like a dude," it's usually dudes who are the ones saying it. They're saying, "Oh, she's as good as us." Of course, that's a stupid statement.
The benefit of the radio is, something beyond your realm of knowledge can surprise you, can enter your realm of knowledge.
You can grow up with literally nothing and you don’t suffer if you know you’re loved and valued,
The music that I make is pretty sincere; it's from my heart and I love it, and what just happened is more people have started to connect with my heart, and I haven't followed some kind of marketing scheme,
There is an assumption that if you're young and pretty, you will get all these opportunities that are way beyond your musical foundation.