The soothing sounds of Spalding

Editor’s note: The City Wire interview with Esperanza Spalding was conducted by Peter Lewis. Photos courtesy of www.esperanzaspalding.com.

Esperanza Spalding, acclaimed as a Jazz prodigy, is bringing her unique brand of music to Fort Smith as part of the Second Street Live Concert series.

Essentially self-taught, Spalding landed a spot in The Chamber Music Society of Oregon and was elevated to a concertmaster position by age 15. She left high school early to enter the music program at Portland State University. She eventually earned a bachelor’s in music at Berklee College of Music and was selected as an instructor at the college at age 20 — by far the youngest faculty member at the prestigious music school.

In 2005, Spalding received the Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship.

Her Fort Smith show begins at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Mar. 2 at the Fort Smith Event Center (12 N. 11th St.). Doors open at 6:30. Tickets can be purchased for $45 at the door. Student tickets are available for $25 for students under 21 with valid ID.

What started you on your musical journey? Was there a seminal moment that sticks out in your mind?

ES: The real beginning was when I was 5 and saw Yo Yo Ma performing as a guest on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. That’s when I became curious about music. When I realized it was what I wanted to do , that it was a possibility to do, was when I started playing in different bands and we’d go perform at clubs and seeing that people actually made a living that way and that I enjoyed it. Then coming to Boston and getting a sense that the sky was the limit in terms of what you could do as a musician, particularly on the east coast, with so many different opportunities. So, it was really more of a combination than a moment.

Did you have any inclination your career would take off as it has?

ES: Not at all.

Did you leave with any particular goals in mind when you did make that move?

ES: I had the over the top, dreamy goals that “this is my ultimate wish” I went out there (Berklee) to go to college, to study my craft. Kind of just assuming that I might be able to lead my own group but not with a sense where it could lead. I had dreamed and fantasized about having a band that traveled around the world, etcetera etcetera … but I couldn’t have foreseen that.

It seems like it would be difficult to begin college at 16 then move across the country at 17. Do you ever feel somewhat … cheated, I guess, out of a “normal” adolescence?

ES: No, no. I wasn’t really interested in the things that other adolescents around me were doing. That was exactly what I wanted to do. I was fighting from when I was 13 for my independence and to be able to operate as independently, as close to like an adult as I possibly could. Seeing how I didn’t know what I was doing, I learned. It was just right for me. I left and went to college on my own desire, you know. That’s what I wanted to be doing. Looking back I’m really glad, cause it (“normal” adolescence) didn’t really appeal to me. To me, mine was normal because I didn’t know anything else.

Are there particular musicians or albums that were an inspiration to your growth as a person or artist?

ES: Of course. There were so many. I can think of two that are deeply ingrained in my being from my childhood. One was a Christmas album by Harry Belafonte and the other was a Christmas album by Stevie Wonder. We’d have those two records in my house playing every Christmas. It’s the first thing I can remember hearing because my family had them since before I was born. I would ask my mom to play it way before Christmas and keep playing it until way after Christmas. That was my music when I was little. And then my mom and I would listen to an oldies station. I wasn’t aware what that was but that was essentially the music of Motown and Stax, and classic rock, Beatles. And that was very influential for me too. There were so many stages and levels that were happening all at once, in terms of musical influences.

When you perform live, do you operate with a specific set list or are your shows a little bit more free flowing?

ES: I usually write the set out when I get to the venue or when I see some of the people that are there. I like to kind of get the vibe of the venue that we’re playing in and I cater the set to what I’m feeling is going to be most effective.

Do you see yourself as a traditionalist — as a jazz musician that is?

ES: No, not at all. I’ve always tried to learn more about the history of that music … but I’m definitely not a traditionalist in any sense of the word.

In many circles there is this sense that jazz has become somewhat stagnant … that the, urgency that was once there has been lost. Do you think jazz can be relevant again not only among American youth in general but for African-American youth?

ES: I don’t think that’s true at all. I don’t think it’s stagnant.

Perhaps that’s a poor choice of words on my part. What I’m trying to get at is, it was kind of the “hip” music and it was very …

ES: The problem I see in that interpretation … I’ve read a lot about this issue too … their mind is stagnant on what jazz means. When jazz was really popular there were genres within the idiom that were really popular in the 50s and 60s and just like any other musical form, like rock, it evolved in every decade. It evolved into new sounds, different artists, different styles, different instrumentations, different races of people, different demographics that embrace it. And that is definitely what happened with jazz, it’s just that somehow when it became academic, when it really started branching out and becoming … what is the word? It almost became encapsulated in this period of the 50s and 60s and now everything that happened after that is compared against that to see if it’s “real” jazz or not. The music itself and the people that were playing it, they branched out and evolved the music into every form of popular music we know today. What is hip hop? The elements that exist in hip hop, how it started, the improvisation … they’re all there. It’s the same framework. So, it’s not stagnant. And there are people that are really connected with the music … meaning black music, meaning modern music, meaning music coming out of the inner cities, however you want to look at the word … that do incorporate jazz, they incorporate it directly into more urban sounding music. So it’s not stagnant at all, and I think it’s funny when people speak about that angle of jazz, they don’t realize that in their own minds they are actually talking about an archaic form of the music. And they complain that other people aren’t bringing it up to date, but their own mind hasn’t even come up to date with what the music has done in the past 30 years.

Where do you see the future of jazz then? What’s your picture of the scene in 10 years or 30 years?

ES: Oh, I don’t know. We’ll have to see. I can’t predict. There are so many influences and so many things happening, it’s really impossible to say (laughs). Ask me in 20 years.

Are there particular influences on the music now that you think are going to help shape the way it is seen here in the immediate future? Does that make sense?

ES: Yeah! …There’s a lot of musicians, young and middle aged, that are so well versed and so familiar with other urban forms of music that they’re able to really create a symbiotic mix of the two, of the two genres, the two idioms. And that they still have the most identifiable elements of “jazz,” within a music easily identifiable as … “I recognize that group. I’ve been listening to that on the radio my whole life.” So, I think people like that are definitely growing more accepting … and that’s the main point. Having it accessible to new generations of people coming up that are going out to concerts, buying tickets to see shows, and buying records. That may be an element that’s very important.