Spotlight On: Esperanza Spalding
ABOUT THIS WEEK’S SHERO IN THE SPOTLIGHT:
Esperanza Spalding has made a career out of defying norms, expectations and easy, rote categorizations. That sounds poetic, I know, but once you get to know her a bit in this episode, I think you’ll see how fitting that sentence is. Starting at age five, Esperanza was a wunderkind violinist performing with the Chamber Music Society in her hometown of Portland Oregon. She went on to become a polymath multi-instrumentalist, both self-taught and trained, with a focus on double bass. She attended Berklee College of Music on full scholarship, where she ended up teaching at 20, becoming one of the youngest instructors in the institution's history and she earned an honorary doctorate from that school in 2018. At 33 she would go on to teach at Harvard. For many, Esperanza seemingly came out of nowhere in 2011 when, to quote NPR: biggest upset of the [2011] Grammy Awards...was when jazz bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding won for Best New Artist. The Recording Academy had never given this honor to a jazz artist before. She beat out Justin Bieber and Drake as well as Mumford & Sons and Florence & the Machine. Of course, she was hardly a New Artist, with three albums already to her name but nevertheless the internet exploded with questions about who she was. In fact, that big win would bring about a moment that would cause Esperanza Spalding to ask herself that very same question but as a bigger exploration of working in this male dominated field. Now with four Grammy’s under her belt, including one she was awarded in 2020 for her seventh album 12 Little Spells, Esperanza has become interested in music therapy, and continuing to push the boundaries of genre, gender, and creative work.
Our playlist features new music from Julien Baker, who has her third album Little Oblivions coming out in February, and two amazing new covers - Widowspeak’s take on a Dire Straits favorite, and our friend Vagabon teams up with Courtney Barnett on a Tim Hardin classic. We also celebrate two SHERO Birthdays this week: Sade (1/16) and Dolly Parton (turning 75 on 1/19).
The Radio SHERO of the week is Honey Harris, host of The Big Show with Honey Harris on Radio Free Santa Fe (KBAC, Santa Fe, NM) who helps to close EP10 with her guest DJ Pick: “People Have The Power” by Patti Smith.