Esperanza Spalding On Piano Jazz

Awhile back, I posted some music information regarding Esperanza Spalding. You know, the beautiful bass player... You can read more at:


http://pianodiana.blogspot.com/2008/08/esperanza-spalding-jazz-by-ear.html

Well, just in case you missed it on April 17th, Esperanza's appearance on Piano Jazz can be viewed at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103207666

Set List

* "Jazz Ain't Nothin but Soul" (B. Carter)
* "Midnight Sun" (Hampton)
* "Just Friends" (Klenner, Lewis)
* "Portrait of Esperanza" (Marian McPartland)
* "Body and Soul" (Green, Heyman, Sour)
* "Prelude to a Kiss" (Ellington)
* "Clothed Woman" (Ellington)
* "Blue Ink" (Leo Genovese)
* "Look No Further" (Rodgers)



* Esperanza Spalding, Kate McGarry In Concert- 2008

"Esperanza Spalding graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2005. She's bursting with talent as a singer, a composer and a bassist, and her facility and big tone have led to her advanced placement in the jazz scene. Now promoting her new CD, Esperanza, Spalding has appeared on the cover of Jazz Times and played on David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel's late-night shows.

Spalding was born in 1984 in Portland, Ore. She was mostly home-schooled, and when she entered high school, she was unhappy. But it was there that she picked up a bass, and it gave her life direction. She did some touring and recording with pop and hip-hop bands, but a full scholarship — plus travel money raised by some of her friends — pulled her east to Berklee College of Music, where she now teaches. Among her many accomplishments, Spalding won the Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship in 2005 and made her JazzSet debut in Joe Lovano's band."

http://www.npr.org/templatess/story/story.php?storyId=93572471

"...24-year-old bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding recently became the youngest instructor ever at Berklee College of Music; she already has two albums out as a leader."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93486060



* My Favorite Photo and Comments of Esperanza Spalding

"One day I went into the high school, into the high school that I went into, and the bass was just — it's kind of funny, it was kind of heavenly, you know?" she says. "I walk into this room, and it literally — it's kind of below street level, and light was shining in, and the bass was just there with no case on it, because they just bought it. And I walked into the room and picked it up and just started playing.

"And at the same time, my music teacher came in and showed me basically what a blues form was, and I just kind of started making anything up," she adds. "And pretty much from that moment, I said, 'Wow, this is — in these five minutes, I'm enjoying this music more than I have the last 10 years on the violin.'"

Instant Communication

Spalding says that the spontaneous connection she made that day remains a formative moment for her conception of jazz today.

"That's like the vein of jazz," she says. "It's that ability to immediately be able to communicate with someone that you don't know. And in those first five minutes of this instrument that was completely foreign to me, in a way I touched right upon that vein. I mean, I hit it, I hit that nerve. Now, after nine years, everything I've learned about jazz kind of all comes back to that first realization in that room."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90478162


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