Radio Music Society featured a guest appearance by Lalah Hathaway; Q-Tip produced a pair of its tracks. It is the foundation of any band: its rhythmic and harmonic center of gravity, its anchor. But unlike these instruments, the bass is not optional. It was during these years, starting at age five, that she began playing violin after seeing Yo-Yo Ma perform on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. But in 2011, that's exactly what Esperanza Spalding did. 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She excelled at the instrument and joined the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. It can't be abandoned for the microphone or dismissed as an accessory. At times, they've grumbled that her music is too immature or too accessible (read: too playful and too joyful), a stance so predictable that it says more about the intractability of critics than the music. The Turning the Tables project seeks to suggest alternatives to the traditional popular music canon, and to do more than that, too: to stimulate conversation about how hierarchies emerge and endure. And it's tempting to write that she does everything Paul Chambers did except backwards and in high heels, because it's still gratifying to see women shredding ferociously on this instrument. In jazz's time-honored apprentice system, \"sidemen\" ready themselves by playing in the bands of more seasoned leaders, ranks that women can still find challenging to enter. It's a timeless question on the surface, but one deeply engaged with whatever historical moment in which it is asked. He did not sound like a butterfly. 2:35 PM. A native of Portland, Ore., Spalding played classical violin as a child and gigged in an indie band on bass as a teenager. Hailed as a prodigy in her teens, Spalding garnered wider attention in the 2000s with the release of her debut, Junjo, and its follow-up, Esperanza, the latter of which topped the contemporary jazz charts. This series of essays takes on another task.THANKS TO OUR SPONSOR:Become a SponsorThe 25 arguments writers make in these pieces challenge the usual definitions of influence. In August 2010, Spalding returned with Chamber Music Society, a more stylistically expansive production that found her straddling the line between contemporary modern jazz, R&B, and Brazilian traditions. Discover what happened on this day. At the same time, Spalding won respect as a teacher, becoming the youngest faculty member at the Berklee College of Music. So it is a little bit different from other species.â","credits":{"affiliation":[],"by":[{"name":"© Oregon Zoo / photo by Michael Durham. She's setting an extreme example for young women in music.". Some rethink the building legacies of popular artists; others celebrate those who create within subcultures, their innovations rippling outward over time. "}],"created_date":"2021-01-12T15:29:43.890Z","revision":{"revision_id":"MVZGGR7C3FEVJGEQZJCBOYXNXU","parent_id":"OUIEWATULVDJPMDIDXHRF43M74","editions":["default"],"branch":"default","user_id":"izacharias@opb.org","published":true},"last_updated_date":"2021-01-12T20:20:29.178Z","canonical_url":"/article/2021/01/12/esperanza-spalding-is-the-21st-century-s-jazz-genius/","headlines":{"basic":"Esperanza Spalding is the 21st centuryâs jazz genius","mobile":"","native":"","print":"","tablet":"","web":"","meta_title":""},"owner":{"id":"opb"},"comments":{},"address":{},"workflow":{"status_code":4,"note":""},"subheadlines":{"basic":""},"description":{"basic":"The ways in which Spalding's music is the most radical are perhaps the most easily overlooked: how, through her singing and playing, she challenges gender norms across styles. The benefits of their creative exchanges may seem obvious to those outside of jazz, but they run contrary to jazz's often elitist musical culture. \"Bringing a more feminine aesthetic into the music is mandatory at this point. This year, Turning the Tables considers how women and non-binary artists are shaping music in our moment, from the pop mainstream to the sinecures of jazz and contemporary classical music. "},"display_date":"2021-01-23T22:50:24.504Z","headlines":{"basic":"Bat baby at Oregon Zoo"},"promo_items":{"basic":{"caption":"âNormally when youâre hand-raising an animal, you have to make sure itâs upright, so it doesnât aspirate,â said Oregon Zoo animal curator Amy Cutting. if(!Array.prototype.includes||! Jazz bassist and singer who won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, as well as three others. In addition, it became the best-selling album by a new jazz artist internationally during 2008. There have long been female players with the chops to do just that: among them, late jazz bassist Carline Ray, session musician Carol Kaye, Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads), Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie), Sara Lee (Gang of Four, B-52s, Indigo Girls) and Meshell Ndegeocello, who herself deserves far greater recognition as an innovator. But unlike these instruments, the bass is not optional. "Bringing a more feminine aesthetic into the music is mandatory at this point. No one expected her to win, least of all herself. "},{"_id":"7KQXGOJEJ5BMJMXSEHHBEO73PE","type":"text","additional_properties":{"comments":[],"_id":1610482795778,"inline_comments":[]},"content":"For example, Spalding's \"Good Lava\" from Emily's D+Evolution demands that we \"See this pretty girl, watch this pretty girl flow\"; grungy guitars mirror bass in shape-shifting, Tetris-like configurations punctuated by ear-popping, overdubbed vocals (think \"Bohemian Rhapsody\"). 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By the time of her Grammy nomination, she'd already recorded three albums: Junjo (2006), an offering of breezy originals and standards; Esperanza (2008), a garland of Afro-Latin and Brazilian influences; and Chamber Music Society (2010), a well-tailored concert program featuring strings. 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"),r.close()),!r)throw Error("base not supported");var a=r.createElement("base");a.href=n,r.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(a);var i=r.createElement("a");return i.href=t,i.href}finally{e&&e.parentNode.removeChild(e)}}());var l=i(t||""),f=function(){if(! Her lyrics are poetry. The 25 arguments writers make in these pieces challenge the usual definitions of influence. Like guitar, it can take pyrotechnic solos. "},{"type":"oembed_response","subtype":"youtube","_id":"EIPWM7CVOVB7HPH345PVUKNVMU","raw_oembed":{"title":"Esperanza Spalding accepting the GRAMMY for Best New Artist at the 53rd GRAMMY Awards | GRAMMYs","author_name":"Recording Academy / GRAMMYs","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGRAMMYs","type":"youtube","height":113,"width":200,"version":"1.0","provider_name":"YouTube","provider_url":"https://www.youtube.com/","thumbnail_height":360,"thumbnail_width":480,"thumbnail_url":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_XgkH8_A7vc/hqdefault.jpg","html":"","_id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkH8_A7vc","additional_properties":{"comments":[],"_id":1610482795766}},"referent":{"id":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkH8_A7vc","type":"youtube","provider":"https://www.youtube.com/oembed?format=json&url=","service":"oembed","referent_properties":{"additional_properties":{"comments":[],"_id":1610482795766}}}},{"_id":"IMENXWWAJZBPVDIL5EPCSJX57U","type":"text","additional_properties":{"comments":[],"_id":1610482795767,"inline_comments":[]},"content":"Spalding has undeniably made her mark within that male-dominated, musically conservative field. Our list of the 200 Greatest Songs By Women+ offers a soundtrack to a new century. And if you're saying that the bass cannot sound like a butterfly, that's bulls***.\""},{"_id":"XTLTSQNIANEKROEF3DITTPECQ4","type":"text","additional_properties":{"comments":[],"_id":1610482795784,"inline_comments":[]},"content":"It's both absurd and completely predictable that Spalding's unconventional excellence would be threatening to those who would uphold the status quo through the bass. She's a virtuosic bass player. Spalding, then 26 years old and little-known outside jazz circles, had been nominated in the coveted best new artist category alongside Drake, Mumford & Sons, Florence + the Machine and Justin Bieber, the obvious favorite that night. But the upset was less shocking for the vitriol of spurned Beliebersâ of which there was plenty â than as the first and only time the award has been given to someone who self-identifies as jazz artist. That fusion was already audible in Esperanza's funky bass lines, but has taken off in her later projects as she has come into the orbit of black popular musicians.A favorite of the Obamas, Spalding performed "Overjoyed" at the White House in tribute to Stevie Wonder in 2009, sparking a relationship between the two artists. The year was 2011. Because Paul Chambers didn't get around the instrument the way she does. "},{"_id":"HN3JW2ZXAZGUHBXSMYZMRPMDSI","type":"text","additional_properties":{"comments":[],"_id":1610482795783,"inline_comments":[]},"content":"\"That really ticks me off,\" Carrington responds, knowing there's no way to compete with dead legends. So she's not digging in as hard; it gives her a kind of fleeting emotion that is beautiful. Leaving Portland, she transferred to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, where she graduated in 2005 and was subsequently hired as an instructor, becoming the school's youngest faculty member at age 20. In 2010, she won Best New Artist at the Grammys, an accolade that helped propel her third album, Chamber Music Society, into the Billboard Top 40 as the best-selling contemporary jazz album that year. INTERVIEW: Why Esperanza Spalding is an Environmentalist - The Green Life For a jazz bassist to get nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy is unlikely nowadays. Although Spalding has performed, and continues to, in groups such as beloved saxophonist Joe Lovano's Us Five, she has leapfrogged through the expected dues-paying to make her own music. From 7 people Radio Song Esperanza Spalding. These artists clearly acknowledge Spalding as a talented peer. Made visible, hers is leadership that cannot be denied. 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Even more improbable is for that musician to trump platinum names like Justin Bieber and Drake to win the thing. Esperanza Spalding is a famous American singer-songwriter and bassist, who was born on October 18, 1984.As a person born on this date, Esperanza Spalding is listed in our database as the 34th most popular celebrity for the day (October 18) and the 150th most popular for the year (1984). On the heels of her Grammy attention, Spalding issued 2012's Radio Music Society. She chooses not to perform desire or longing, themes that fuel the most deeply held stereotypes of jazz women as singers who simply emote rather than perform with technical skill. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. Our 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century illuminate its complexities. He did not sound like a butterfly. Esperanza Spalding performs at the 2011 Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland.Itâs not enough to make list after list. !function(a){var e="https://s.go-mpulse.net/boomerang/",t="addEventListener";if("False"=="True")a.BOOMR_config=a.BOOMR_config||{},a.BOOMR_config.PageParams=a.BOOMR_config.PageParams||{},a.BOOMR_config.PageParams.pci=!0,e="https://s2.go-mpulse.net/boomerang/";if(window.BOOMR_API_key="LMCSE-ANKAX-2ECXU-27BW6-DEWG7",function(){function n(e){a.BOOMR_onload=e&&e.timeStamp||(new Date).getTime()}if(!a.BOOMR||!a.BOOMR.version&&!a.BOOMR.snippetExecuted){a.BOOMR=a.BOOMR||{},a.BOOMR.snippetExecuted=!0;var i,_,o,r=document.createElement("iframe");if(a[t])a[t]("load",n,!1);else if(a.attachEvent)a.attachEvent("onload",n);r.src="javascript:void(0)",r.title="",r.role="presentation",(r.frameElement||r).style.cssText="width:0;height:0;border:0;display:none;",o=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0],o.parentNode.insertBefore(r,o);try{_=r.contentWindow.document}catch(O){i=document.domain,r.src="javascript:var d=document.open();d.domain='"+i+"';void(0);",_=r.contentWindow.document}_.open()._l=function(){var a=this.createElement("script");if(i)this.domain=i;a.id="boomr-if-as",a.src=e+"LMCSE-ANKAX-2ECXU-27BW6-DEWG7",BOOMR_lstart=(new Date).getTime(),this.body.appendChild(a)},_.write("'),_.close()}}(),"".length>0)if(a&&"performance"in a&&a.performance&&"function"==typeof a.performance.setResourceTimingBufferSize)a.performance.setResourceTimingBufferSize();!function(){if(BOOMR=a.BOOMR||{},BOOMR.plugins=BOOMR.plugins||{},!BOOMR.plugins.AK){var e=""=="true"?1:0,t="",n="gjlzauiximvdsyamxtza-f-6d1ca5f3b-clientnsv4-s.akamaihd.net",i={"ak.v":"30","ak.cp":"921305","ak.ai":parseInt("590344",10),"ak.ol":"0","ak.cr":27,"ak.ipv":4,"ak.proto":"http/1.0","ak.rid":"c63bf5","ak.r":35087,"ak.a2":e,"ak.m":"a","ak.n":"essl","ak.bpcip":"50.87.144.0","ak.cport":11404,"ak.gh":"23.67.42.53","ak.quicv":"","ak.tlsv":"tls1.2","ak.0rtt":"","ak.csrc":"-","ak.acc":"reno","ak.t":"1611447538","ak.ak":"hOBiQwZUYzCg5VSAfCLimQ==YV+z61pD7kqj73xvQa051yISMnDHiNw/MBd59E0ZVrkKDjmm5JR0MHnrEI9SqLVemWZvIbOnTZUf6B1pKzWV3MJzgbVp6h+aTSNvb/2XCkI2sFwoqVHR2erAUunwu3X8Leze+y/9+GXj28yhES0yK9GxtUPH9yfgeNoQfSezkhaENUqi7CWAGeEFwhDHKcT5tE6rqxUG+z+pji6MExjDgJvIywtChiPLcCaegj6eJ1cAt+CEgHzrBHIejf4pqeweLX1HvF5mAUcgWMhfM3kcCUmuY/gb0HDN5YHXjAPFOMDsikkvzAfMXt5lz5TddssPdTroxhcwICkDU19Q5J3w/6ra+u4JIZ3UZMesnl5KOUtxdO3t3we62o9hhxtNXa+ID0UImXZ1vFqcbbfQ79krRgWoWmBWtQm7EoKI9irAtpM=","ak.pv":"75","ak.dpoabenc":""};if(""!==t)i["ak.ruds"]=t;var _={i:!1,av:function(e){var t="http.initiator";if(e&&(!e[t]||"spa_hard"===e[t]))i["ak.feo"]=void 0!==a.aFeoApplied?1:0,BOOMR.addVar(i)},rv:function(){var a=["ak.bpcip","ak.cport","ak.cr","ak.csrc","ak.gh","ak.ipv","ak.m","ak.n","ak.ol","ak.proto","ak.quicv","ak.tlsv","ak.0rtt","ak.r","ak.acc","ak.t"];BOOMR.removeVar(a)}};BOOMR.plugins.AK={akVars:i,akDNSPreFetchDomain:n,init:function(){if(!_.i){var a=BOOMR.subscribe;a("before_beacon",_.av,null,null),a("onbeacon",_.rv,null,null),_.i=!0}return this},is_complete:function(){return!0}}}}()}(window);Jan. 24, 2021contribute nowIn The NewsUK variant COVID-19Bat baby at Oregon ZooVaccinating older OregoniansRedmond, Lake Oswego schools Vaccinating OregonEsperanza Spalding is the 21st centuryâs jazz geniusBy Lara Pellegrinelli (NPR)Jan. 12, 2021 8:20 p.m.Esperanza Spalding performs at the 2011 Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland.Photo Illustration: A163/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images and Angela Hsieh/NPRItâs not enough to make list after list. 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