Esperanza Spalding

From Portland to Radio Music Society

Esperanza Emily Spalding was born on October 18, 1984 in Portland, Oregon and raised in the King neighborhood of northeast Portland. She played violin, oboe and clarinet as a child, left the Northwest Academy at 16 with a GED, took a music scholarship at Portland State and then a full scholarship to Berklee, where she was hired to teach shortly after graduating in 2005. Thara Memory was her mentor; she studied and toured with Joe Lovano, toured with Patti Austin and played bass on M. Ward's Transfiguration of Vincent (2002). Her instruments are double bass, bass guitar and voice, including a fretless Fender Jaco Pastorius Jazz Bass.

Junjo came out in April 2006 on Ayva Musica, followed by Esperanza (2008, Heads Up) and Chamber Music Society (2010), which reached 34 on the Billboard 200 after her Grammy win. She won best new artist at the 2011 Grammys. Radio Music Society (March 20, 2012), produced by Spalding and Q-Tip, debuted at 10 on the Billboard 200 and number 1 on the jazz chart, her first US top ten album, and won the 2013 Grammy for best jazz vocal album. Emily's D+Evolution (March 2016, Concord) was co-produced by Tony Visconti, and Exposure (December 2017) was recorded over 77 consecutive hours streamed on Facebook, in 7,777 limited copies. 12 Little Spells (twelve tracks released October 7 to 18, 2018) reached number 1 on the jazz albums chart and won the 2020 Grammy for best jazz vocal album; a 2022 Grammy went to Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival, with Wayne Shorter, Terri Lyne Carrington and Leo Genovese.

She was appointed professor of the practice of music at Harvard in July 2017 and announced her resignation in November 2022. She wrote the libretto for Wayne Shorter's opera Iphigenia (2020 to 2021), made Alive at the Village Vanguard (2023) with Fred Hersch and Milton + Esperanza (August 9, 2024) with Milton Nascimento, a Grammy nominee for best jazz vocal album in 2025, and received a Doris Duke Artist Award in 2024. She played an NPR Tiny Desk concert in 2011 (Berklee says 2010) and a Tiny Desk (Home) concert on January 7, 2022. Setlist.fm shows dates through September 2026.