Esperanza Spalding
A Musical Prodigy: Her Life, Career and Greatest Achievements
Personal life
Born in Portland, Oregon on the 18th of October 1984, American jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding was born to a mixed-race household. Her father was African-American, and her mother was of Native American, Welsh, and Hispanic descent. The young girl didn’t exactly grow up poor, but her family lived in an area that was prone to gang violence. Esperanza’s eldest brother raised her and her siblings as a single parent.
Much of Spalding’s childhood was spent being homeschooled by her mother. It was during this time that she began her first musical training, listening to her mother study jazz guitar. She would even accompany her mother to music classes where she’d sit under the piano and try to play the music she heard by ear.
Eventually, these moments would bear fruit. Spalding’s mother discovered the young girl’s skill when she was able to play Beethoven by ear on the family piano at a young age. In addition, Spalding also credits watching cellist Yo-Yo Ma play on the TV show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood as another inspiration to pursue music. She trained until she was skilled enough to play with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. Eventually, she would pick up the double bass while studying at Northwest Academy.
Performance
Watch Spalding perform for NPR music way back in 2010, and again in 2022. While both amazing, see how her sound has evolved and progressed to what it is today.
2010
2022
Career
After dropping out of Northwest, Spalding decided to focus all of her attention on the double bass. Upon completing her GED, she auditioned for the Berklee College of Music and eventually got a full-ride scholarship. There, Berklee Executive Vice President Gary Burton noted Spalding’s talent: he highlighted her uncanny knack for staying confident even when reading the most complicated pieces, as well as her skill in making these pieces her own
This skill and unbridled talent led her to release her debut album, titled Junjo, in 2006. Two years later, she released a self-titled album called Esperanza. She would keep focusing on her material, and it bore fruit a few years later. Her album Radio Music Society led to her first Grammy Award in 2012 for the best jazz vocal album. It was also nominated for the best long-form music video.
She would go on to win another Grammy with 12 Little Spells, which was released in 2018, and another in 2013 for her work on City Of Roses as an instrumental arranger and accompanying vocalist. Aside from her Grammy winnings, she would also receive the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award, the Soul Train Music Award, and Jazz Artist of The Year in 2011 courtesy of the Boston Music Awards. She even appeared in a film, Love Beats Rhymes, in 2017…
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