Justin Bieber fans goin' buckwild.


http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/ ... -fueled-wikipedia-rampage

and might i add this topic was created almost a full 3 years ago, and she is winning a Grammy now. Good job on those who found her so early. I just listened to her voice and i have to say, i love it. I have always loved Alicia keys' voice personally but Esperanza is giving her a run for her money

I believe she did grow up in Portland, but the location specified on her music networking sites is generally listed as Jersey City.


http://www.reverbnation.com/esperanzaspalding

http://www.myspace.com/esperanzaspalding

According to CNN, she's from Portland, Oregon.

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/ ... speranza-spalding/?hpt=C1

Wow. Congrats to her. I honestly was routing for Eminem, but to know that she is from JC.....eminem who???? WE do produce quality stuff here, but we can't take all the credit since she is from portland. Congrats Esperanza

Congratulations to Jersey City's Esperanza Spalding for winning the Best New Artist Grammy!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme ... s-this-esperanza-spalding

The woman is an insanely talented bassist and a phenomenal songwriter, and her latest album Chamber Music Society is clear proof of why she was so deserving of this award.

Oh wow, pretty cool. I had no idea she was from Jersey City. I saw her perform on CBS Sunday Morning and she was great. Will definitely check her out live. For those of you who like Afro-Brazilian Jazz beats check out Ithamara Koorax.

Singing Bassist Spalding, 23, Breaks Stereotypes, Stays Cool


By Patrick Cole
Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- At age 23, Esperanza Spalding has
released her first jazz recording, become one of the youngest
instructors ever at Boston's Berklee College of Music and
appeared with her band on ``The Late Show With David Letterman.''
Music critics and fans call her a trailblazer and a prodigy.
Spalding dismisses it all as hype.
``I know so many actors and dancers who are phenomenal, and
I don't think I'm any more phenomenal than they are,'' the Jersey
City, New Jersey, resident said during an interview at the
Manhattan headquarters of Bloomberg News. ``What I focus on is my
craft. It's about the quality of my work and getting better.''
What's certain is that Spalding's double act is shaking up
stereotypes of the jazz bassist. In the male-dominated world of
bass sidemen, she has elbowed her way into prestige gigs with top
musicians such as saxophonist Joe Lovano and guitarist Pat
Metheny.
On her CD released in May, ``Esperanza'' (Heads Up
International, 2008), her compositions feature lush vocals on top
of her bass rhythms, which have earned her regular airplay on
jazz-radio stations nationwide. In September, she embarks on a
tour of Japan and Western Europe that includes stops in Tokyo,
Madrid and Oslo.
At a show last Saturday at New York's Nokia Theatre,
Spalding straddled the line between pop and jazz with her radio-
friendly vocals and the backing of a young, capable trio of Leo
Genovese on piano, Ricardo Vogt on guitar and Otis Brown on
drums.
``I haven't heard someone who sings and plays acoustic bass
in a really long time,'' said the Grammy Award-winning bassist
and producer Marcus Miller, 49, who performed with the group
S.M.V. after Spalding's show at the Nokia Theatre. ``It's not
easy because you have to split your brain to do that.''

`Letterman Show'

Spalding's musicianship and her stage presence, accented
with her bright smile and '70s-style Afro hairdo, earned her a
guest spot on ``David Letterman.'' After her performance of
``Precious,'' a song about a relationship, Letterman called
Spalding ``the coolest person we've ever had'' on his program.
``She's unique because she's a very good singer, she has
real chops on the bass and she's shown that she can back a band
and also be a leader,'' Jason Koransky, editor of the influential
jazz monthly DownBeat, said in a phone interview. ``She's off to
a very good start, and she'll make better albums as she
matures.''
Born in Portland, Oregon, Spalding said she wanted to be a
musician after seeing Yo-Yo Ma play cello on ``Mister Rogers'
Neighborhood,'' the children's TV program. She disliked high
school and dropped out at age 16, later earning a general
education diploma and attending Portland State University to
study music. She earned a music degree from Berklee in 2005 and
became an instructor at the school the same year.

New Album

Spalding said she will perform songs from her current album
that showcase her singing and songwriting. In ``Precious,'' she
said she wanted to convey in earnest a woman's plea for respect
in a relationship from a man: ``Love me or leave me / But please
/ Don't deceive me / And say you / Love me how I am / You love
the way / I fit some ideal / Not the real woman / You've yet to
understand.''
She hopes audiences will respond to the stories she tells
through the lyrics as well as to her musical and vocal abilities.
``Some people come to my shows and say, `Let's see what
she's about -- she's probably hyped,''' Spalding said. ``Most
people come with an open mind, and that's the best thing you
could ask for.''

Spalding will perform in Osaka, Japan, on Sept. 3; Tokyo,
Sept. 5 and 6; Barcelona, Sept. 10; Madrid, Sept. 13; Amsterdam,
Sept. 15; and Oslo, Sept. 18. She appears at New York's Highline
Ballroom on Oct. 7. For more information, see her tour schedule.

ESPERANZA SPALDING, Jersey City, NJ

Written by Randy Ray
Tuesday, 22 July 2008

AFRO JAZZ FOR THE PEOPLE

Esperanza Spalding strikes a remarkable balance between emotion and intellect on her new, selftitled album. ?I like to call it jazz soluble,? the acoustic bassist/vocalist/composer says. ?How soluble jazz is in so many other forms of music that we are really familiar with. In a down-to-earth way, that?s just kind of what I hear, too. The songs showcase a broad spectrum of sounds that are obviously infused with jazz from around the world?Afro jazz from Brazil and Cuba.? Her influences stretch from hip-hop to world beat to the tricky art of pop music songcraft with lyrics she penned in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The Berklee College of Music grad and youngest professor in that institution?s history is surrounded by an excellent group of veteran musicians on the album, including pianist Leo Genovese, drummer Otis Brown, saxophonist Donald Harrison and flamenco guitarist Nino Josele. Yet it?s Spalding?s singular vision throughout the work that delivers the deepest impression. ?Ultimately, I wanted to make music that would have a lot of the essences of jazz?improvisation, harmony and theory, and that type of interaction and communication in song form?but in a vernacular that is more palatable for the general listener who may not necessarily be a jazz connoisseur." www.esperanzaspalding.com

http://www.relix.com/Features/Bands_O ... _Verge/ESPERANZA_SPALDING,_Jersey_City,_NJ_200807223049.html

Fuel for the soul

By NALIA FRANCIS
The Intelligencer
June 3, 2008

The temptation, says Esperanza Spalding, is one that enthralls many who stumble upon the double bass.Having tried her hand at piano, violin, clarinet and oboe, the ever-curious artist was 15 when she encountered the large bowed string instrument goofing off in the band room at school.

?This happens to anybody who's never played acoustic bass,? she says of the instrument's unspoken invitation. ?You put your head on it and play it and the vibration is really deep and really loud and it just resonates in your brain.?

While not everyone who has the experience is tempted to learn the instrument, for Spalding, the urge to further explore was compelling, especially since she had grown tired of playing the violin.

?At the beginning, it was just the tone ? so deep and full and round and exciting. The sound was awesome,? she says, recounting her efforts to play a piece she'd been learning on violin on the bass.

Then a music teacher entered the room and although he jokingly asked her if she wanted to play bass, he taught her a blues line around which he encouraged her to improvise. Spalding was sold.

?I thought, "This is what I've been trying to do this whole time. This is what fits,' ? says the Jersey City resident.

Today, at all of only 23 years old, she is on the fast track to an acclaimed career as a multilingual vocalist, bassist and composer. She brings with her an impressive rsum that includes being the youngest faculty member in the history of Berklee College of Music ? she signed on at age 20 ? and having already worked with artists such as Pat Metheny, Stanley Clarke, Herbie Hancock and Joe Lovano. Her first album, ?Junjo,? which she produced, was released on a Spanish label, but last month, Spalding made her big-label debut with a self-titled album released on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group.

And while her first disc featured primarily her wordless vocals and bass stylings, ?Esperanza? is a bolder, more expansive project on which she collaborates with a crew of A-list musicians, from flamenco guitar virtuoso Nino Josele and saxophonist Donald Harrison to trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Otis Brown. A rich mlange of influences that infuses both the traditional and progressive jazz traditions with flourishes of soul, rhythm and blues, pop and world music, the CD is both a showcase for her diaphanous vocals and her prodigious instrumental technique. Spalding sings in English, Spanish and Portuguese, her voice gliding lithely through breezy samba-styled rhythms and reinterpreted jazz standards, smoky ballads and spirited, seemingly extemporaneous arrangements. Often, she displays a deft facility at vocalizing in a non-lyric-based style that keeps pace with her fleet fingers.

It's a sound, she says of the album, that builds on the spontaneity and improvisation of jazz while harkening back to her days playing blues, funk, hip-hop and other styles of music as a teenager on the club circuit in Portland, Ore., where she grew up.

?There are all these sounds outside of jazz that I'm just as happy and familiar with,? says Spalding, who performs Saturday at the Festival Pier at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia. ?And I wanted to bring ... jazz into an arena with all these other sounds that would still be cool to a jazzer but would also reach as many people as possible and still keep my musical integrity and vision.?

While much has been made of her status as a prodigy, she is quick to downplay such grandiose assertions. Still, she was 5 when she picked up the violin and was also fond of tinkering on the home piano. Admitting to being a ?strange child,? Spalding was an avid learner who nonetheless struggled in the traditional educational system.

?I always want to do way more than I can. I'd see the lesson plan in, like, second grade and I would want to learn more than that. I was just so bored with the pace,? she says. ?I'm not a stagnant person. I like to move forward. If there's the opportunity to excel, even if it's hard, I want to pursue it.?

Chronic pneumonia eventually forced her to be home-schooled through most of her elementary school years. At 16 ? after leaving high school but still obtaining her GED ? she enrolled at Portland State University to study classical music and jazz. By that time, she had already been elevated to concertmaster of the Chamber Music Society of Oregon, Portland's community orchestra, was writing and composing music and had been playing with an impressive cast of local musicians whom she met through a community cultural program for poor inner-city kids in which her mom had enrolled her.

When a professor at Portland State encouraged her to apply to Berklee at 17, Spalding didn't even know what Berklee was, but she auditioned anyway, got in and found the money to stay by landing a gig touring as the bass player with Patti Austin after her first semester, which generated more work with other musicians. When she got the chance to work on a CD project with jazz guitarist Metheny and vibraphone virtuoso Gary Burton while still at Berklee, it was Metheny who encouraged her to pursue a career in music, as Spalding was considering political science as well, looking to make more of a tangible difference in the world beyond her creativity.

But what had always come most naturally to her also offered an unexpected platform. Ever the student, reading up on all the subjects that interest her, from sustainable agriculture to math ? ?my bag when I'm traveling weighs, like, 50 pounds because I stuff all these books in there,? she jokes ? she has found that as a musician, people are more willing to listen to her views on such subjects than they would an expert.

?The more you know, the more it shows in your music. As Sam Cooke said, "You have to read a lot of history to have something to put into your music,' ? says Spalding, who still teaches at Berklee.

?I'd like to say that this happens to anyone who just follows their dream, but that's not always true. I've gotten a lot of things that I haven't really earned yet,? she says of her stunning journey thus far. ?That refuels my fire. I have all these amazing opportunities that have been placed in my path, and I want to make sure I can meet them equally and just do justice to the opportunities and blessings that I've been given.?