Well weren't we all shocked when Mrs. Esperanza Spalding won Best New Artist at the 201l Grammy's last weekend? Some were mostly shocked because they had never heard of her before her win. I just remember the president of the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences mentioning before the show that "many careers will be changed forever after the awards show." That stuck out to me because there were several acts nominated that had won before or were already considered winners due to popularity. I had a feeling some new faces would be taking Grammy's home that night. I was very excited to see the underdog win in this case because although she may have not been as popular she is definitely talented. As we know sometimes popularity can over shadow talent and some talented artist are forgotten.(Not to take anything away from JB and Drake, they both are very talented as well and both had huge success last year).
Esperanza Spalding hit my radar when she performed a tribute to Prince along with Janelle Monae last year. I also heard that she was one of Prince's favorite artist which is why she was chose to do the tribute. I knew if Prince loved her she must be a brilliant artist, after all he does love my favorite Janelle Monae'. After her tribute performance, I checked out her albums and was immediately distracted by the fact that it was Jazz and figured she'd grow on me eventually. I must be honest I'm still growing to love Jazz music as a whole. I know, I know its so wrong. The only artist I can confidently say that I truly love listening to is Miles Davis. Which isn't a bad start right? This week I checked out a few songs by Esperanza Spalding which I really enjoyed. She is honestly very talented and I appreciate her artistry. Her voice is so eloquent it is truly a beautiful instrument. She plays the upright bass, bass guitar, violin, oboe, and clarinet and is acutally considered a neo-soul/jazz artist. I'm hearing that Q-tip will produce her next album so I'm definitely interested in hearing that. Meanwhile, I will invest in her first album "Juno" and I encourage some of my hip hop/soul heads to check her out as well...After all Jazz is a close relative to Soul/blues and Hip Hop.
Here are few of my favorite songs so far:
Esperanza Spalding - "Little Fly" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.
See her performing Stevie Wonders "Overjoyed" at the White House
Check out these albums:
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