Today's Music Monday feature is the extremely talented musician, Esperanza Spalding. Esperanza is an American jazz bassist, cellist, and singer. In addition to jazz, she also plays jazz fusion, bossa nova, and neo soul music. She's been playing music since she was very young. She was inspired to start playing when she was only 4 years old and has seen Yo-Yo Ma perform on an episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. By the time she was 5 she had taught herself the violin and was playing with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. She was definitely a child prodigy! In addition to playing multiple instruments, she also sings in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Esperanza has won 4 Grammys, one of which being Best New Artist at the 2011 Grammy Awards. This was the first time I had ever heard of her and probably lots of other people lol. For the award she was up against, Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence + The Machine, and Mumford & Sons. Talk about competition! I think everyone expected Bieber or Drake to win. I'm a fan of all these artists(except Bieber. No thank you.). So I was pulling for any of them to win. But after she won I went and looked her up and fell in love with her voice and music and realized that she totally deserved to win. With this win she also became the first ever jazz artist to win the award.
She has 4 albums out now. On her third album, Chamber Music Society, it opens with a beautiful rendition of Little Fly, a poem by William Blake. With her most recent album, Radio Music Society, she hoped it would help to showcase jazz musicians in an accessible way and suitable for mainstream radio. I think the album can definitely be enjoyed by anyone, jazz music fan or not. And I think that's a testament to just how truly talented Esperanza is. You can listen to her albums here on Spotify.
Here's a video of her performing the William Blake poem, Little Fly.
And here are 2 neat videos of her performing at the White House for President Obama and the First Lady.
If you've never given jazz music a shot or have been wanting to get into it, I think Esperanza would definitely be a good place to start.
Happy Listening!
How do you like Esperanza Spalding?
MKD
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