The first time I heard of Esperanza Spalding was in February 2009 as she graced the White House during a ceremony to honor Stevie Wonder. Her rendition of Stevie’s classic, “Overjoyed,” blew me away. I have been a fan ever since. Well, maybe fan isn’t the best word for my level of support for the young jazz singer and musician. I mean, I’m not Justin Bieber-deface Esperanza’s Wikipedia page mere minutes after the award announcement-fanatical but I think it is important that someone who has bought three of her albums and keep each in his regular rotation to lend a voice to her budding brilliance. I sometimes think about what it must have been like for fans of jazz to experience an up and coming Miles Davis or Nina Simone. I know when I first heard hip hop at a young age, and I performed my first freestyle at seven years old, I was mesmerized. I still hear LL Cool J’s “I’m Bad” in my head at the mention of my first contact with the musical art. Years later, I could hear hip hop on a late night radio program over my pop’s house or I could see it on the Arsenio Hall show. At that time, I had BET to introduce me to LL and hip hop. But there’s no BET for Spalding, only YouTube clips of her performing on Dave Letterman or Jimmy Kimmel Live and, of course, the White House.
The excitement I feel for Spalding or Roy Hargrove and others is what I felt for A Tribe Called Quest or Eric B and Rakim. Being exposed to various members of the Native Tongue family or the Digging in the Crates crew made me want to become a DJ, which never happened but it did foster my love of music. I would dig in my parent’s music collection to find beats to sample and would come across Curtis Mayfield, Al Green, Stevie Wonder. Those finds expanded and deepened my appreciation for music created or performed by black artists. Stevie’s album Talking Book grabbed me in a profound way. It made go on a quest to buy every album of his. I would cringe when artists would cover his classics or deep cuts. Ironically, it was because of my love for Stevie Wonder’s music that I stumbled across Spalding.
It started with hearing about the White House honor bestowed upon Wonder. Then I looked up the musical ceremony in hopes that it was online at PBS or YouTube. When I found it on PBS, Esperanza was called to the stage with her beautiful afro and then she got behind an upright bass as though she was about to play it. I thought that she was only going to sing but then she played it to the melody of “Overjoyed.” I was astounded, particularly when she sang and played. I can do neither so I’m easily amazed by such acts of artistry. I wondered who she was and how come I never heard of her.
Like I imagine Bieber fans to act, I was all over the internet trying to get more information about the 26 year old and learned that she released her second album, Esperanza, in May of 2008. It is considered her first major but it is also a minor repackaging of songs from an earlier album titled Junjo, released in 2006. I soon bought each of those works and followed her career ever since. Her latest album, Chamber Music Society, has a different vibe than Esperanza but it’s worth checking out.
Last night, I didn’t get a chance to watch the Grammy Award show but I knew that Spalding was up for best new artist. When I got a text saying that she won, my responded with three letters: wow. For a woman who could have stepped out Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues as character competing against Wesley Snipes’ Shadow and Denzel Washington’s Bleak Gilliam, she beat out some popular music icons with huge followings. That makes her slept-on. Although I still love hip hop, I don’t own any music by Drake or Usher’s protégé, Bieber. Esperanza is a jazz artist who is just as hip hop to me as A Tribe Called Quest. The only difference is that Esperanza Spalding won a Grammy for best new artist when few of my favorites have. Hopefully, this is a sign that music lovers are beginning to wake up to her talent.
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