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Class actJazz bassist Esperanza Spalding
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by GERARD DEE No doubt, Esperanza Spalding is musically gifted. Yet although the 25-year-old Portland, Oregon native learned to play violin at five and is proficient on piano, these days, it’s all about the bass. “Functionally, I like how it works,” explains Spalding. “And once I really started understanding the role that the bass played in the band and how I got to interact with other musicians, it moved me, it spoke to me.” Spalding, whose first name means “hope” in Spanish, has been speaking to audiences through her bass for a while now, wowing them with her intricate musicianship and eclectic style. That style is genuinely reflected on her 2008 self-titled solo debut. “I wanted people to get a feel for what my sound is, but it’s so multifaceted,” she says. “So I’m just giving people a little more information about where I’m coming from. When you look at it from that perspective, the album’s cohesive. Otherwise, it’s kind of schizophrenic, but that’s kind of how my music is.” Spalding’s album is truly a potpourri of styles, drawing from classic jazz, modern groove and even Latin influences. And she sings in Spanish and Portuguese as well as English. Her dynamic vocal style is the perfect companion to her bass skills. “My approach to singing is just thinking about what I want to hear from my voice and then practising and figuring out how to do it. I initially just started singing and not worrying about whether I was a singer or not, but now I’m really taking the time to cultivate it.” Spalding also works hard at creating music. Ironically, her success and subsequent hectic schedule leave little time for doing that these days. “I get the most work done when I’m at home, on my piano, but that doesn’t happen very often anymore, so whenever an idea comes, I write it down and then I follow up later when I get home. It’s hard being gone a lot—I really depend on the piano to write and arrange. I always have this backlog of material to finish by the time I get home.” It’s not the first time Spalding has had to juggle multiple responsibilities. A year after enrolling at the Berklee College of Music, at the ripe old age of 17, she began teaching there, and then embarked on her first international gig, backing singer Patti Austin on the For Ella tour. “Working with the students was the easy part. The challenge was just being there. I started [touring], and I was gone a lot. We were often out for a month at a time and that doesn’t do well for teaching a class. But it was great, it was only overwhelming in terms of balancing it with touring.” Surprisingly, Spalding thinks there’s more pressure teaching than performing. “It’s definitely easier to stand in front of an audience. There are many dynamics that come into play when you’re teaching someone something. Everything from whether or not they’ve done their work to whether they think you’re invested in their progress. I feel like, when it’s time to perform, you just do what you do, nobody’s questioning it. You don’t have to prove anything. You get up on stage and make people happy. That’s the easy part.” AT GESÙ TONIGHT, THURSDAY, JULY 2, |
