Wonder Women: Esperanza Spalding

In this edition of No Treble’s Wonder Women series, we will examine the extraordinary musical path of bassist, vocalist, composer, and songwriter Esperanza Spalding.

Born October 18th, 1984, in Portland, Oregon, she was raised in a single-parent household. Her mother exposed the family to diverse musical genres that would shape Spalding’s career. Since her mother studied jazz guitar, Spalding sometimes accompanied her to her lessons, listening in from a spot under a piano in the room.

A pivotal moment for young Spalding was seeing cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. She was four years old, still too small to hold a cello, so she took up the violin. She took a few private lessons, and afterward, she continued to practice and study independently, becoming skilled enough to perform with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon by age 5. She stayed with the Chamber Music Society until age 15 and left as concertmaster. During that decade, she also learned how to play guitar (from her mother), piano, and she experimented with clarinet and oboe.

Her journey with the bass began at age 15. Spalding said in a Bass Player interview, “It’s like waking up one day and realizing you’re in love with a co-worker. I went into this [high school] music room because I was skipping classes, and I was just messing with the bass. The first time I went in, a music teacher showed me how the blues worked, and from that day on, I would always go there every day and play the bass. I was falling in love with it and didn’t even know.” Shortly thereafter, she started gigging in clubs around Portland as a teenager on bass. She also joined the group Noise for Pretend as a singer and lyricist. All of these experiences helped her musical abilities sharpen and grow.

She got her GED at age 16 and enrolled at Portland State University on a music scholarship, where she was the youngest bassist in the music program. After a year at Portland State, learning as much as she could about jazz, she applied and auditioned for Berklee College of Music. She received a full scholarship and completed her undergraduate in three years. Upon graduating at age 20, she was asked to teach at Berklee, making her the youngest instructor in the school’s history.

In 2006, 22-year-old Spalding released her debut album, Junjo, with pianist Aruán Ortiz and drummer Francisco Mela. Jamie Katz of Vibe magazine (Dec 2006) wrote, “…it’s Spalding’s singular creations that make Junjo truly beguiling, signaling a new and important voice in jazz.” The follow-up was the 2008 release of Esperanza. Spalding sings in three languages on the album: English, Spanish, and Portuguese. And she blends world music influences with jazz. Spalding went to the top of Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart and remained on the chart for over 70 weeks. Her bass playing, coupled with her soulful voice, brought a fresh and captivating energy to the jazz scene.

2010 saw the release of Chamber Music Society, which charted at number 34 on the Billboard 200. The success of the album propelled her to a groundbreaking achievement. In 2011, Spalding stunned the music world when she won the Grammy for Best New Artist, making history as the first jazz musician to receive the honor…beating out artists like Drake and Justin Bieber.

Spalding’s discography is a testament to her versatility and creativity. Radio Music Society (2012) weaves jazz, R&B, gospel, and soul into an album that landed two more Grammy wins (Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists) along with the Soul Train Music Award and Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award. The 2016 release, Emily’s D+Evolution, explored Esperanza singing through the alter ego of Emily. Christopher R. Weingarten of Rolling Stone wrote, “The lyrics, flowing in disjunctive clusters, are about deleted narratives, glass ceilings and dreams deferred – ultimately a complex, funky prog-rock concept opera about love and identity.” The 2017 Exposure saw her writing an entire album in 77 hours while livestreaming the entire process on Facebook. Once completed, she released 7,777 limited edition recordings of the album, each containing a piece of notepaper for writing the songs. 2018 saw the release of 12 Little Spells. Each “spell” was accompanied by a music video released on her YouTube channel. 2020 and 2021 saw her collaborate with Wayne Shorter on an operatic work called Iphigenia. In 2021 she released her 8th album, Songwrights Apothecary Lab. The album is named for is named after her affiliation with musicians and health practitioners. The release contains 12 pieces of music, called formwelas, written and recorded in Spalding’s traveling music laboratory over several months.

2022 saw the premiere of an immersive opera called “A God of Her Own Making,” by Spalding and Jojo Abot. The National Sawdust’s site states, “A GOD OF HER OWN MAKING builds on JOJO ABOT’s exploration of spirituality and incorporates Spalding’s lineages and practices of restorative music.”

Spalding’s indelible mark on jazz and music is undeniable. Her journey as a bassist, vocalist, and trailblazing creative is a beacon of empowerment and artistic freedom. Through her innovative playing, educational work, creative exploration, genre-defying albums, philanthropy, and advocacy for change, she embodies the spirit of a true Wonder Woman of bass.