Ron's Jazz World: 4/17/16

Jazz great Esperanza Spalding is a Grammy Award-winning bassist, vocalist and songwriter

Hailed as a prodigy on the acoustic double bass within months of first touching the instrument as a 15-year-old, Esperanza Spalding has emerged as a fine jazz bassist, but has also distinguished herself playing blues, funk, hip-hop, pop fusion, and Brazilian and Afro-Cuban styles as well.

Born in Portland, Oregon in 1984, Spalding was not well served by the public school system and soon dropped out of classes to be home-schooled.Raised by her mom, Spalding was homeschooled for much of her childhood and, inspired by Yo-Yo Ma, taught herself how to play violin. She joined her home state’s Chamber Music Society as a youth, reaching a concertmaster position by her teens.

Returning to the public school system at 15, she encountered her first acoustic bass (she had already been playing violin for several years) and immediately took to the instrument. Dropping out of school again, Spalding enrolled in classes at Portland State University as a 16-year-old, and earned her B.A. in just three years and was immediately hired as an instructor at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston in the spring of 2005.

After touring and playing with a host of artists, including Joe Lovano, Patti Austin, Michel Camilo, Charlie Haden, Regina Carter, Pat Metheny, Dave Samuels, and many others

Esperanza+, Solidarity of Arts festival 2014, part 1 of 2

Esperanza+, Solidarity of Arts festival 2014, part 2 of 2

Geri Allen, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington - jazz in marciac

Esperanza Spalding: Live at BRIC | NPR MUSIC FRONT ROW Published on Mar 10, 2016
Fulfilling the performance-art vision of her spirit-muse Emily, Esperanza Spalding played the music of her forthcoming album Emily's D+Evolution in concert at BRIC House in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Thursday, March 3. WFUV and NPR Music presented a live video webstream of the performance as part of the First Listen Live series.

Emily's D+Evolution marks a new sound for Spalding. Here, she picks up the electric bass (and occasionally the piano) and surrounds herself with a power trio of electric guitar and drums — a louder, proggier, weirder funk-rock direction for the jazz-trained bassist and vocalist. It's part of a broad theatrical vision for the character Emily, inspired by broad philosophical musings on resourcefulness and the nature of progress. On stage, she was surrounded by choreographed routines, a marionette closet and three backup singers dressed all in yellow.

"Whether you want to see it as devolution and evolution, and the place where they co-exist without one diminishing the other, or you could look at it like barely having the tools that you need, but having to move forward, and having to keep moving," Spalding told NPR. "What do you do when you don't really have all the tools that you need, but you have to survive? And you need to grow and expand?

" Set List "
Good Lava" 1:00
"Rest in Pleasure" 4:28
"Ebony and Ivy" 10:03
"Elevate or Operate" 18:10
"Noble Nobles" 23:03
"Judas" 27:24
"Farewell Dolly" 33:49
"Funk the Fear" 35:37
"One" 44:10
"Earth To Heaven" 47:55
"Unconditional Love" 52:39

Credits:
Director: Mito Habe-Evans; Producers: Saidah Blount, Patrick Jarenwattananon, Sarah Wardrop/WFUV; Stage Director: Will Weigler; Videographers: Kara Frame, Nickolai Hammar, Cameron Robert, A.J. Wilhelm; Audio Engineer: Jim O’Hara/WFUV; Post-Production Editor: Nickolai Hammar; Event Production Assistant: Erin Conlon; Special Thanks: BRIC House Ballroom; Executive Director: Anya Grundmann;