Esperanza Spalding may have surprised the music world when she received a this year's Grammy for Best New Artist, but the talented bassist, vocalist, composer and bandleader is unpretentious about being the first jazz artist to win the award. When I contacted her at home for a phone interview, I found her fun and cute, but passionate and candid about jazz. Her insights into jazz history demonstrate her deep respect for her forebears, while her own work illustrates how she can keep it fresh while remaining within the tradition.
NUVO: How has your being the first jazz artist to receive the Grammy for Best New Artist changed your career?
Esperanza Spalding: It hasn't changed my life very much, but there is one thing I can say about it. Even though it is exciting about the Grammy, there is no "me" without all of the musicians, teachers, friends and supporters who are equally important in terms of the music I make or the career that I have. I hope there are positive repercussions for the jazz community on the whole. I wish I could share that honor more directly with all of the people from who I learned from.
NUVO: What jazz artist inspired you to pick the bass as your instrument? And who inspired you to sing with it?
Spalding: I always liked Slam Stewart. I didn't think of being a vocalist when I listened to him. I liked him as a bass player. I didn't think of his singing and playing with his bass solos in Slim Gaillard's group. I would go to a friend's house, and he would teach me songs. To remember the chord progressions, I would sing the chord melody. It became something I wanted to cultivate more and explore, and that's how it started.
NUVO: You're an instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. Which role is the most satisfying for you?
Spalding: Oh, they are all part of one whole. I don't really differentiate. It's sort of mixed up. It's the experience of them all that is really fulfilling.
NUVO: Are more female instrumentalists such as yourself moving into jazz careers?
Spalding: The only reason there aren't more are the special requirements of being a professional traveling jazz musician that are challenging for someone who is engaged in a more traditional role, as a mother at home with kids or being a more domestic wife. Touring isn't really compatible with that lifestyle. I think you will see that more women are seeing their commitment to their music as a traveling, recording professional artist in jazz. It relies so heavily on touring and being gone at night. I think that has been the hindrance on women continuing their professional careers.
NUVO: Do you think that jazz has strayed from its roots?
Spalding: I think, technically, the foundation is strong, and the roots of what has become jazz are firmly in every branch in part of what has American music and almost every form of popular music. If you wanted to get literal about it, the answer is no. It hasn't strayed from its roots. There are many ways of looking at it.
NUVO: You have said you believe hip-hop and neo-soul are "our 'jazz' now as far as the role these genres play in the music genre lineage."
Spalding: ...I would say rap is the need for improvisation in rhythm and time. It shows how you can create your own time and shows how you can use the vocabulary to create you own swing. That to me is a really a distinctive characteristic of jazz. To me freestyling is really an outcropping of jazz.
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