Catching up with Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza, former lead vocalist and stand up bassist for HUSH recording artist Noise For Pretend is cropping up again in the media. This time we find the The New Yorker lavishing an in-depth profile on the now 25 year old sensation. You’ll need to pick up the mag, or have a digital subscription to read that, but the website has a nice podcast to accompany the article:
Esperanza on The New Yorker Audio Podcast
Recently, Esperanza performed some amazing, seemingly frenetic renditions of jazz standards in studio on NPR affiliate Jazz24. Listen here.
The author also provided some candid behind-the-scenes video of Spalding’s songwriting process and work on a forthcoming album:
When I visited her home in Austin, Texas, I asked if I could shoot some video of her explaining how a song gets written and arranged. She happily obliged me by talking about the creation of an as-yet-untitled song:
Spalding plans to record this song but not for her next album, “The Chamber Music Society,” which is due out this summer. But I went out to Bennett Recording Studios, in Englewood, N.J., and watched her conduct a string section for a song that will be. It’s called “Apple Blossom”: