Esperanza Spalding

Bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding has built a reputation as a Grammy-winning artist whose contemporary jazz work draws on an adventurous blend of genres. Recognized early as a standout talent during her teenage years, she drew broader notice in the 2000s after issuing her first recording, Junjo, followed by the self-titled Esperanza, which ascended to the top of the contemporary jazz charts. Her 2010 Grammy victory for Best New Artist boosted the profile of her third effort, Chamber Music Society, sending it into the Billboard Top 40 and marking it as the top-selling contemporary jazz release of that year. Around the same period she earned acclaim in education by joining the Berklee College of Music faculty as its youngest member. A second Grammy arrived for the 2012 album Radio Music Society. Spalding has continued to pursue bold, idea-centered projects, releasing the 2016 set Emily's D+Evolution, the 2019 collection Twelve Little Spells, and 2021's Songwrights Apothecary Lab, each pushing beyond jazz into art rock, R&B, Afro-Latin forms, neo-prog, and experimental pop. Even so, she keeps a central place for closely interpreted standards and jazz, evident in the 2023 duo recording Alive at the Village Vanguard with Fred Hersch and the 2024 folk- and bossa nova-inflected Milton + Esperanza, her partnership with Milton Nascimento.

Born in Portland, Oregon, in 1984, Spalding dealt with persistent pneumonia and rheumatoid juvenile arthritis stemming from an autoimmune condition. As a result she received most of her early education at home. Beginning at age five, after watching Yo-Yo Ma on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, she took up the violin, progressed rapidly, and entered the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. By fifteen she had been appointed the group's concertmaster violinist. That same year she reentered public school, where she joined the band and discovered the acoustic double bass. The new instrument resonated with her immediately, prompting her to leave school again at sixteen in order to devote herself fully to music. After earning a GED she attended Portland State University, completing a B.A. in three years while performing locally and studying privately with Portland jazz figures Ron Steen, Thara Memory, Darrell Grant, and others. She later transferred to Boston's Berklee School of Music, graduating in 2005 and remaining on staff as an instructor, at twenty the youngest faculty member in the school's history.

Outside the classroom Spalding developed an active performing career, fronting her own trio and collaborating with artists such as Joe Lovano, Patti Austin, Michel Camilo, Charlie Haden, Regina Carter, Pat Metheny, and Dave Samuels. In 2006 she issued her debut solo album, Junjo, on Barcelona's Ayva label. Two years afterward came Esperanza on Heads Up Records, a release that achieved both critical and commercial success, holding the top spot on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Albums chart for more than seventy weeks and ranking as the best-selling debut jazz album worldwide in 2008.

Spalding returned in August 2010 with Chamber Music Society, a broader stylistic statement that merged contemporary jazz, R&B, and Brazilian elements. The project contained eight original compositions and three covers, along with vocal contributions from Milton Nascimento and Gretchen Parlato, a string section, and guitarist Ricardo Vogt. It reached number one on the Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and helped secure her Grammy for Best New Artist.

Following that recognition she delivered 2012's Radio Music Society, conceived as a counterpart to the previous album. The recording featured drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and pianist Leo Genovese, with longtime associate saxophonist Joe Lovano plus guests that included drummers Jack DeJohnette and Billy Hart, guitarists Jef Lee Johnson and Lionel Loueke, hip-hop producer and DJ Q-Tip, and vocalists such as Gretchen Parlato and Lalah Hathaway. It reached number ten on the Billboard 200 and earned Spalding her second Grammy, this time for Best Jazz Vocal Album. In 2013 she appeared on several other projects, among them Janelle Monáe's The Electric Lady and Lovano's Cross Culture. The next year she contributed to vocalist Dianne Reeves' Beautiful Life and pianist Billy Childs' Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro.

Spalding resumed her own catalog in 2016 with Emily's D+Evolution, an ambitious prog-rock concept album centered on a character sharing her middle name. She continued the conceptual thread in 2019 with the Grammy-nominated Twelve Little Spells, twelve songs each tied to a different part of the body. September 2021 brought Songwrights Apothecary Lab, an album linked to a Harvard course she organized and featuring an eclectic mix of sounds along with appearances by singer Ganavya Doraiswamy and singer/trombonist Corey King. The 2022 concert document Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival captured her 2017 performance with the multi-generational group that also included Wayne Shorter, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Leo Genovese. January 2023 saw the release of Alive at the Village Vanguard, documenting her duo work with pianist Fred Hersch. August 2024 introduced Milton + Esperanza, reuniting her with longtime idol and earlier collaborator Milton Nascimento and adding contributions from Paul Simon, Dianne Reeves, Elena Pinderhughes, and others.