{"id":11688,"date":"2016-11-02T05:30:05","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T09:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=11688"},"modified":"2016-11-03T08:18:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T12:18:49","slug":"esperanza-spaldings-musical-evolution-or-devolution-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/02\/esperanza-spaldings-musical-evolution-or-devolution-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Esperanza Spalding’s Musical Evolution (or D+Evolution?), Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: portions of this feature appeared previously (and in different form) in altweeklies in Asheville NC, Chicago and Salt Lake City. — bk<\/em><\/p>\n

Cross-genre sensation Esperanza Spalding<\/b> is something of an anomaly \u2013 albeit a welcome one \u2013 on today’s pop music landscape. A fine singer with an impressive range, she’s also a supremely accomplished composer and musician, one with a thundering command of her primary instruments: upright bass and electric bass guitar.<\/p>\n

As a kid in Portland, Oregon in the 1990s, she listened to the current radio pop hits. \u201cI liked KNRK-FM,\u201d Spalding recalls, \u201cwhich at that time would play anything from Sun Ra<\/b> to Nine Inch Nails<\/b> to Stone Temple Pilots<\/b> and Hole<\/b>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spalding’s training (and self-training: she taught herself violin by age 5) is rooted in jazz and classical forms, but for her, both have their limitations. \u201cI started playing jazz when I was improvising when I was 15,\u201d she says. By age 15 she was concertmaster with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon<\/strong>. During her young teenage years playing in an orchestra, Spalding found herself \u201cgetting really bored. It started to sound really predictable.\u201d She describes some of the classical music she had to play as \u201cimmaculate, but it was kind of too<\/i> immaculate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At 16 she attended Portland State University; that experience opened her mind to some of the more fascinating intricacies of classical music. \u201cThe world of classical music busted open before my eyes,\u201d Spalding says, \u201cbecause in the college orchestra we played Stravinsky<\/b>\u2019s ‘Petrushka.’\u201d She also began to appreciate the work of classical composer Johannes Brahms<\/b>. \u201cSometimes,\u201d she laughs, \u201cBrahms will kick you in the ass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I understood intuitively that there\u2019s more than what you are commonly sold about any<\/i> genre,\u201d Spalding says. \u201cSo I got really excited about classical music and about that instrumental medium. But,\u201d she adds, \u201cI was more<\/i> passionate about improvising.\u201d<\/p>\n

That passion led her to apply for and win a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. \u201cI really ran down that path of exploring a global sensibility: you have this common language which is improv \u2013 and I mean playing with anybody. You can do anything with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the youngest person ever to join the faculty of the prestigious Berklee College of Music upon her 2005 graduation, she went on to become the first jazz artist to win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2011, famously besting pop idol Justin Bieber<\/b>. Emily’s D+Evolution<\/i> is Spalding’s fifth album, and songs like \u201cEarth to Heaven\u201d showcase a dizzying yet highly appealing synthesis of rock, funk, soul and jazz.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Holly Andres<\/p><\/div>\n

Spalding takes issue with the suggestion that the music on Emily’s D+Evolution<\/i> could serve as a kind of \u201cgateway drug,\u201d drawing listeners into a new appreciation for jazz. For example, \u201cif somebody heard [1970s jazz fusion group] Weather Report<\/b> and didn\u2019t like it, that\u2019s fine,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s where they\u2019re at, and I don\u2019t think that my record is somehow going to open up their faculties.\u201d She laughs and adds, \u201cWhen I first heard Weather Report, I<\/i> didn\u2019t like it!\u201d But once she began to appreciate that group’s music \u2013 a combination of pop-friendly melodies and intense, high-level instrumental interplay \u2013 she was hooked. \u201cWhen I came to it, it was like nothing else in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing her own music, she admits that some of it \u201cwould raise the eyebrows of a pop listener, but my overarching sentiment about making music is: do whatever you want. It\u2019s a common language.\u201d<\/p>\n