Esperanza Spalding Quotes
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The benefit of the radio is, something beyond your realm of knowledge can surprise you, can enter your realm of knowledge.
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I am insubordinate by nature. I can't help it.
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I did grow up in a rough neighborhood in Portland, which is an abstract concept for anybody who's rolled through Portland because now it looks like a TV set, literally.
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I was exposed to many kinds of music including rock and disco, classical and folk, Midtown and Miles Davis, Sly Stone and David Bowie.
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It's weird sometimes to have people not see me or see what I do.
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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.
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The music that I make is pretty sincere; it's from my heart and I love it, and what just happened is more people have started to connect with my heart, and I haven't followed some kind of marketing scheme.
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Whoever you are, if you know what you're doing, you don't want other people to overtake the merit of your art.
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It's a pity 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.
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My name means 'hope' in Spanish and it's a name I want to live up to.
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When I read, you know, a rough neighborhood of Portland, I'm like - what? - they didn't have kombucha bars there?
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Jazz has always been a melting pot of influences and I plan to incorporate them all.
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Up-and-coming musicians can easily reach out and find a loving teacher, and that's definitely what happened to me.
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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!
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There is an assumption that if you're young and pretty, you will get all these opportunities that are way beyond your musical foundation.
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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.
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You don't have to be fearless to do anything, you can be scared out of your mind.
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There's the juiciest music that makes me so happy, music that I need on that deserted island when I'm stranded for the rest of my life, and nobody cares that it's there.
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People are more used to seeing men who are masters at an instrument than women.
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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.
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I always say that the problem with jazz accessibility is not the content of the music, it's people's ability to access it.
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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.
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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.
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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.