The Spring Quartet with Esperanza Spalding

Spring Lovin’

By: Franchesca Kiesling

Hanover, NH

Esperanza sings like a doll and her crew is as classic as classic gets. Jazz has faded in today’s world, but Esperanza Spalding and her crew continue to keep it alive with their improvisational talents. From drum solos to saxophone, piano, and upright bass they have every technique mastered.

            Esperanza Spalding was born in the early 1980’s. As she grew up she was constantly inspired by her single mother to pursue music. Her mother, a musician herself, raised Esperanza and her brother in a poor region of Portland, Oregon. By age 14 she had discovered the bass, received a scholarship to a high school and realized that high school was not her thing. She dropped out and received her GED at 15. Esperanza wanted music more than anything in her life so auditioned at Berklee College of Music and received a full scholarship. As a young artist, she had no experience with true performance until she had to do benefit concerts in order to be able to afford to live at Berklee. By age 27 she won her first Grammy of four in 2011. She defeated Justin Bieber, and Mumford and Sons for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist making her the first jazz musician to win the award.

            The Grammy was well awarded to her. When she came out on stage Tuesday night, she took the audience by storm. Her hair in a chaotic yet controlled fashion; she was the cutest one on stage by far. When she finally debuted her “thesis” on philosophy her voice captured the crowd. Although her bass was so low it got lost in the group together, alone the low repetitive melodies were very effective with the constantly varying level and tone of her voice. The audience may have been confused by her singing voice at first because it was not in a language, but an acceptance of the piece swept over the room. Her simple melodic voice ranged from high to low and gave ample respect to the amount of talent she actually has.

            A concert in the traditional sense may be one that gets you out of your seat and moving. This jazz concert was smoother than the traditional concert, though. Some would call it the soft background music to the silent movie or even elevator-esque if they really did not enjoy it, but no matter how soft the music is, Esperzana Spalding and the Spring Quartet are a lively bunch who all share a love for jazz, spring, and being musicians.