Esperanza Spalding

[Wil Davis]

I got a chance to hear her play at The Acton Jazz Cafe (MA) last Sunday afternoon! Great sound, amazing technique - very musical, and great ears! Check her out if you get a chance!


- Wil

[Paul Warburton]

A bit more info Wil?

[Wil Davis]

…try googling "esperanza spalding bass" (without the quotes)

- Wil

[Tbeers]

I'll save people the trouble:
http://www.berklee.edu/profiles/spalding.html

A fascinating story... very inspiring.

[Mark Carlsen]

A quick update: Esperanza dropped by my shop today to have some minor repairs done on her bass.I've worked on her basses for a couple years now
She has graduated Berklee and was recently hired part time on the bass faculty this summer.She is also playing and touring w.Joe Lovano and is going to Mexico this fall.
I guess good things are coming fast for this talented young lady and I second Wil's suggestion to check her out if she is playing near by.

[Wil Davis]

Heads up!

Esperanza will be at The Acton Jazz Cafe tomorrow (Sunday, October 30th) from four until seven with Alan Rowe and Karen Kocharyan.

- Wil

[lowendforlife]

I don't know if I maybe heard her on an off day (or a few off days actually), but I have to disagree with your take on esperanza's playing. I heard her this past summer at Berklee in concert with Seamus Blake, Adam Rogers, and Terri Lyne Carrington, then in concert with Danilo Perez, then again with Greg Osby...granted, those are some HEAVY cats to be with. That aside, I honestly felt like she was out of her league. Her feel in all three situations came across quite strangely and felt choppy and forced to my eats. She was playing very busily underneath all the solos, so much so that she even garnered (as far as I could tell) a harshly dirty look from Adam Rogers while he was blowing on "No Greater Love"...she lost the form when trading choruses on Mr. P.C...her chops are nice, but a lot of her material is very questionable harmonically speaking. As a whole, I was very disappointed, because she is bigtime hyped around Boston...This is not intended to be an arrogant post at all, just my honest $.02

Thoughts?

[Wil Davis]

Well, perhaps you got her on a bad night…

…anyway, here are some excerpts from the AJC gig last week:

Rhythm Changes

There is no > Love

Alone Together (Solo & 4s)

(these are large-ish to try and preserve fidelity…)

- Wil

[Mark Carlsen]

That's a pretty good recording of the bass,Wil...{I guess the new soundpost I made for her bass worked] How was the bass miked? Alan Rowe is one crazy dude,Love his playing too! Sorry I wasn't able to attend.

[jazzbass72]

Another talented Berklee bass graduate... that's great to hear.
I can hear a lot of Dave Holland and Larry Grenadier influences from the clips, which is nice. Even though, to be completely honest, sometimes it gets hard to really tell the changes from her solos. The fact that the pianist lays out for most of them doesn't help that much either. But definitely, there's a lot of great potential in her playing, and it's refreshing to see a young woman laying it down on the upright bass, in this guy-dominated jazz bass world. If she can become a role model for other aspiring young female bassists, that's fantastic, the music world needs them! Hope I get to meet her one day

Marco

[Wil Davis]

Originally Posted by Mark Carlsen

That's a pretty good recording of the bass,Wil...{I guess the new soundpost I made for her bass worked] How was the bass miked? Alan Rowe is one crazy dude,Love his playing too! Sorry I wasn't able to attend.

Thanks for the compliment… On the bass, I used a Neumann KM-185 stuck in a piece of foam wedged behind the tailpiece (see threads passim) - which was just as well, as her little GK Back-Line amp failed as soon as she switched it on, and so she played totally acoustic for most of the set. She eventually borrowed someone else's amp, but I wasn't worried about the recording as I knew just the mic would be sufficient, and each member of the band was close enough to hear OK.

For the recording I used a pair of Neumann KM-184s on the piano, and four Audix drum mics on the kit, and an Earthworks TC30K halfway back in the room for ambience. Total of 8 channels.

Alan is a very interesting and creative pianist - lots of space!!! and Karen is a great drummer - very subtle, and doesn't whack the hell out of everything - dead easy to record!! …and yes, the soundpost sounded pretty good…

- Wil

[Wil Davis]

…and here are some pictures…

- Wil

[Sam Sherry]

Whew! I just picked up her 2005 disc "Junjo" off EMusic. Whew I say! It is simply unfair for anybody to be able to play that well and sing that well at the same time.

And Pete Kontrimas does his usual splendid engineering job too. (It must be your soundpost too, Mark: Nice job!)

Great record. I'll be listening lots more.

[RobinBetton]

Originally Posted by lowendforlife

I don't know if I maybe heard her on an off day (or a few off days actually), but I have to disagree with your take on esperanza's playing. I heard her this past summer at Berklee in concert with Seamus Blake, Adam Rogers, and Terri Lyne Carrington, then in concert with Danilo Perez, then again with Greg Osby...granted, those are some HEAVY cats to be with. That aside, I honestly felt like she was out of her league. Her feel in all three situations came across quite strangely and felt choppy and forced to my eats. She was playing very busily underneath all the solos, so much so that she even garnered (as far as I could tell) a harshly dirty look from Adam Rogers while he was blowing on "No Greater Love"...she lost the form when trading choruses on Mr. P.C...her chops are nice, but a lot of her material is very questionable harmonically speaking. As a whole, I was very disappointed, because she is bigtime hyped around Boston...This is not intended to be an arrogant post at all, just my honest $.02

Thoughts?

i was there too and i had her for bass class at 5 week. I agree with you about the performance. I've heard her perform better. Everybody has their offdays. Is this billy by the way?