Interview with Esperanza Spalding

Posted on Sunday, December 5

Jazzed up Classical (with a touch of Latin): Interview with Esperanza Spalding
Chamber Music Society Heads Up (2010)
Wild is The Wind

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By Catalina Maria Johnson, Ph.D.

It’s hard to fathom the many talents bestowed upon 26-year-old bassist Esperanza Spalding, an artist who is shaking up both the jazz and the classical world with unique style and flair:  besides manifesting extraordinary artistry on the bass, she is an arranger and composer of melodies that stretch jazz just barely to borders of world music. Additionally, she’s blessed with a voice of outstanding range that soars and scats at will, and a charismatic, lovely presence. And, as I discovered conversing with her the day after the announcement of her Grammy nomination for “Best New Artist” – the first time for a jazz artist, ever – she expresses herself with the same kind of clear, passionate eloquence evidenced in her music.

In many ways, Chamber Music Society bears witness to the exploration that has marked Spalding’s musical path. She became passionate about music, she says, at age 5, and spent her adolescent years as a violinist with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. Discovering the upright bass led to the unique characteristics of her jazz journey, which always hovered at the edges of the classical sphere, due to the influence of those early years. This current project includes the work of violinist Entcho Todorov, violist Lois Martin, and cellist David Eggar who make up Spalding’s string trio, and from the jazz realm, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, pianist Leo Genovese, guitarist Ricardo Vogt and percussionist Quintino Cinnalli, who in the ensemble with the string musicians, practically create a new genre, where precise classical string trio arrangements fuse effortlessly with the jazz instruments and their improvisation.

Did I mention Spalding sings in Spanish and Portuguese also? The first language, Spalding says, she picked up on her own and in gigs that favored Cuban and Latin music. Over time, friendships with Latino musicians and a longstanding collaboration with the Argentinean pianist Leo Genovese, led her to Argentinean folk music, and most especially the rural genre called the “chacarera”, shared by Argentina and Bolivia. Her 2006 debut album, Junjo, included a hauntingly beautiful interpretation of an Argentinean folk song, “Cantora de Yala”, and her current album, titled Chamber Music Society, features a tune titled, “Chacarera”, that takes jazzy flight off of the traditional bombo drum’s syncopated intro. Another tune, “Wild is the Wind”, which has been interpreted by Johnny Mathis, Nina Simone and David Bowie, is given the Esperanza Spalding treatment to result in a mixed-idiom rendition that is classical, jazz and tango all at the same time.

As to Portuguese, she studied the language prior to her first trip to Brazil several years ago. That trip included a visit to Brazilian great Milton Nascimento, now a close friend as well as co-vocalist on the new CD’s “Apple Blossom”, a folk tune that adds the Brazilian acoustic guitar to the mix. Master samba composer Antonio Carlos Jobim’s melodies have also been a presence on Spalding’s CD’s.  “Samba em preludio” was on Junjo, and Chamber Music Society, has “Inutil Paisagem”, featuring a haunting and delicate interplay between the voices of Spalding and awarded jazz vocalist Gretchen Parlato.

Regardless of the multitude of influences her music demonstrates, it is the masterful spontaneity at the heart of jazz, says Spalding, that has made it a musical home she considers particularly enthralling: “There’s nothing quite like the music that is created in a space, live. It’s a spontaneous, shared story the musicians tell right before their audience.” But that magic doesn’t just happen, she clarifies. “It’s something that comes about after a long period of time of practicing, and honing and polishing, a lot of skill building. It requires listening really carefully to the other musicians”, and, she emphasizes firmly, “a lot of very hard work and team work. “

Her next musical project is likely to take her into musical territory few jazz musicians tread: mainstream radio. If you go to Spalding’s web site, there are two doors – the Chamber Music Society door opens up to access the web site’s information. The other door, labeled “Radio Music Society” stays shut, and the sign on it says, “I’m not here yet.” Spalding explains her next CD will cross the portal into music for a much larger audience. I ask if this means she’s moving into “pop”, and she responds with just a touch of vehemence. “What is pop? I’m not even sure what that means. It’s just the shortening of the word ‘popular’.”

What it will really be about, describes Spalding, is sharing her music with a much wider world without compromising its soul or its integrity. “My colleagues are so inspiring, I wish there were more opportunities for these incredible musicians to be heard, for their music to be shared…it deserves to be consumed by a much wider audience. If I can be a small part of that, that would be nice, very nice.”

No doubt whatever Spalding undertakes it will be quite unlike anything we’ve heard before.  I look forward to the sonic adventures sure to be in store for us when she opens up that Radio Music Society door.

Esperanza Spalding will be playing Symphony Orchestra Hall Friday, December 10
Image: Courtesy of Montuno Productions ©Sandrine Lee