I put my mother through a lot when I was a teenager. I used to lie a lot. Now, we talk all the time.
— Esperanza Spalding
When I was a kid, I was really curious about acting. And I was interested in movement and dance. I wasn't good at either of those things - I didn't work at those things.
When something in art or music piques my interest, I tend to go check it out, and most things I check out, I'm not very good at. But a few things I've gone to check out have given me back as much love as I gave them, usually much more.
It's about process, the process of growth. It seems to me in my own life - and other minds throughout history have also observed this phenomenon - that growth seems to move in two directions at the same time.
There's nothing wrong with struggle. Anytime I look back at a difficult phase of my life and see what grew out of it - the creative survival tactics - I think that the good is way better than the bad.
You don't have to be fearless to do anything; you can be scared out of your mind. I fear that I won't get better and that I won't have time to practice. To be called a 'jazz musician' - it's a big responsibility.
I am insubordinate by nature. I can't help it.
I never think my music isn't easy until I got to teach it to other people.
I love people, and I love to be with people and to make music with people, but my natural state is to revert back to being by myself in my house, which is cool because that's where I practice and write and listen and study.
I just think music is so intrinsically linked with images in the culture that we live in that you'll be hard-pressed to have an experience with the music without a preconceived notion.
Anything I do has to have integrity, so if you just want to make music, it's not difficult finding support. The hard part for a publicist or manager is making a star.
On nights that I'm feeling a need to stretch personally and artistically, I tend to put together outfits that are very quirky, mismatched and over-the-top eclectic.
There's enough time in the day: If you go to bed at 10 and start your day at 6, there's a lot you can do in a day!
I grew up with an incredibly loving and supportive family that gave me the impression there were a lot of options for me out there.
I was exposed to many kinds of music including rock and disco, classical and folk, Midtown and Miles Davis, Sly Stone and David Bowie.
I focused primarily on being an instrumentalist and studying music and on my primary means of expression: composing and playing.
I don't think it's about playing and singing, to be honest. That seems like old news, you know? I wasn't thinking about that. I just think that's in my body now. Dancers don't think about their legs moving one way and their arms moving another. Over time, you incorporate that into your instrument.
There's a guy I used to pay to work with me who'd call me 'kiddo.' I said, 'There's nothing that justifies you expressing that to me, your boss.'
I just want to say, if you're going crazy, take a break. I felt overwhelmed by stuff that wasn't satisfying me, things I was supposed to do for my career. I stopped and said, 'Let me get back to the basics.'
If you're a writer, and you write fiction, that's not all you read.
For what I can imagine and feel and think and hear, I can hardly do anything on the acoustic bass. It used to be just pure frustration of imagining so much more and being able to get to a certain level of execution.
If you don't already know about jazz music, how would you be exposed? How would get an opportunity to find out if it spoke to you? If you get exposed to it enough, you might find a taste for it.
I like to read, and I like dance. I don't dance, but I like to see other people dance.
I always say that the problem with jazz accessibility is not the content of the music, it's people's ability to access it.
Genre boundaries are good for marketing but they all but disappear when you're a player.
My earliest attempts at writing were when I was seven. I would sit at the piano and transcribe the songs I heard on the radio. I'd change little things in the music and write different lyrics.
I think there's so much negative influence on children in school settings. It becomes learning by rote to pass a test. It's not contextualized.
I'm realizing now that I was always really curious about inviting people into a space and sharing information that way. But I didn't have any context for it. It was just fun because I was homeschooled and lonely and bored, and I'd do things to get people to come over.
When I was a kid, people called me Emily rather than Esperanza, even though my full name is Esperanza Emily Spalding.
As you go back or move toward insights/ideas/events/words/lessons/mistakes in the past, you develop into the future from the present. I think that's pretty cool that two quote-unquote opposites are intrinsically linked. That whole theme of opposites being two sides of the same whole is a theme that's always been intriguing to me.
Your sanity is harder to get back than money or contacts. You are the magic. You are the art. You can't lose that.
And I feel that it's inevitable that the work that I do will reflect the life that I live. And the life I live feels very diverse.
I love Aretha Franklin, Edith Piaf, Blondie.
I write at the piano, so I write things that fit comfortably under my hands, and I'm not thinking in terms of any specific compositional methods. I'm just seeking sounds.
The benefit of the radio is, something beyond your realm of knowledge can surprise you, can enter your realm of knowledge.
It's a pity that if someone who has a really profoundly potent art to share chooses not to or doesn't fit into this very thin slice of what's desirable and marketable, chances are the public will never get a chance to hear what they're doing.
There is an assumption that if you're young and pretty, you will get all these opportunities that are way beyond your musical foundation.
Jazz has always been a melting pot of influences and I plan to incorporate them all.
You can grow up with literally nothing and you don't suffer if you know you're loved and valued.
I don't watch TV, I don't spend time on the Internet, and I don't party much. I don't text very much, either.
