One of the most talked-about young artists in jazz, Spalding has been catapulted into stardom with recent appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel Live, and has been the subject of feature stories in Jazziz, Bass Player, Down Beat, the New York Times, and the Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. She has also just been selected as one of the faces of Banana Republic’s national spring and summer ad campaigns.
Spalding’s performance will feature works from her first U.S. album, Esperanza, which has been praised for its mix of swing-derived and Afro-Latin rhythms and lilting vocals in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The album debuted at #10 in Billboard Contemporary Jazz.
Prior to her Lively Arts debut in 2007, Spalding was relatively unknown, with only one recording to her name, Junjo, a CD released by the Ayva label in Barcelona. “I listened to the recording and was blown away,” remembers Lively Arts artistic and executive director Bilfield. “There was a sense of an artist going out on a limb and being very much in her world. It wasn’t highly and self-consciously produced. It struck me as a vulnerable work that was intimate and full of storytelling.”
The day before her performance at Dinkelspiel, on Thursday, February 26, Spalding will participate in two Lively Arts–sponsored companion events: a free, informal performance and discussion for children at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View (6:00 p.m.) and an interactive Songwriters Workshop (for Stanford students) on the university campus, when Spalding will perform some of her original songs and students will be invited to share and shape theirs under her auspices.
Generously supported by Nancy and Larry Mohr, and presented in partnership with KCSM Jazz 91.
About Esperanza Spalding
Born in 1984 in Portland, Oregon. Esperanza Spalding’s interested in music started at age four, after she watched classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform on an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. “That was when I realized that I wanted to do something musical,” she says. “It was definitely the thing that hipped me to the whole idea of music as a creative pursuit.” She attended Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where she not only earned a B.M. but also signed on as an instructor in 2005 at the age of 20—an appointment that made her one of the youngest faculty members in the history of the college. She is also the 2005 recipient of the prestigious Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship. Spalding has worked with several notable artists, including pianist Michel Camilo, vibraphonist Dave Samuels, bassist Stanley Clarke, guitarist Pat Metheny, singer Patti Austin, and saxophonists Donald Harrison and Joe Lovano. The newest chapter of Spalding’s journey began with the release of second recording, a self-titled CD for Heads Up in May 2008.
Otis Brown has toured extensively throughout the United States in addition to performing at all of the major festivals abroad, including those in Italy, France, Armenia, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Brazil, the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, and various other countries. He currently can be seen touring with the Thelonious Monk Institute’s Jazz in America initiative, Joe Lovano’s trio, quartet, and nonet, the Laurent Coq Trio, the Franck Amsallem Trio and Quartet, the Steve Wilson Quartet, the Oliver Lake Big Band, the Jerome Sabbagh Trio and Quartet, the Donny McCaslin Quartet, guitarist Ron Jackson’s quartet, the Bob Stewart Tuba Project, and many others.
Born and raised in Venado Tuerto, Argentina, Leo Genovese studied classical piano at the National University of Rosario and Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with Danilo Prez, Joanne Brackeen, Frank Carlberg, and Ed Tomassi. He released his first solo record, Haikus II, in 2004 and will enter the Ropeadope family with his new record, Unlocked, which features not only Genovese but Joe Hunt and Justin Purtill (a.k.a. the Chromatic Guachos).
Born in Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil, Ricardo Vogt cam to the United States at age 17 and began his studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and was later granted the World Tour Scholarship for Berklee College of Music in Boston. Vogt tours around the world and has performed at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, the Madrid Jazz Festival, and the Dinant Jazz Festival alongside Toots Thielemans. Vogt began his new role as guitar player for Esperanza Spalding in May 2008.
TICKETS
Tickets for Esperanza Spalding, presented by Stanford Lively Arts on Friday, February 27 at 8:00 p.m. at Dinkelspiel Auditorium, range from $34 to $38 for adults and $17 to $19 for Stanford students. Half-price tickets are available for young people age 18 and under and discounts are available for groups and students. Contact the Stanford Ticket Office at 650-725-ARTS (2787), or visit http://livelyarts.stanford.edu.
VENUE INFORMATION
Dinkelspiel Auditorium is located at 471 Lagunita Drive, adjacent to Tresidder Union. Parking on campus is free of charge after 4:00 p.m. and on weekends at all times, and may be found in the lot off Lagunita Drive near Tresidder Memorial Union, on Abbott Way, and in Parking Structure 6 under Wilbur Field. Maps and directions are available at http://livelyarts.stanford.edu.
ABOUT STANFORD LIVELY ARTS
Stanford Lively Arts curates experiences that engage artists’ and audiences’ imagination, creativity, and sense of adventure. Founded in 1969 at Stanford University, we produce and present music, theater, dance, spoken word, and multi-media events. We place a special focus on innovation and risk-taking, and through commissions and premieres are an incubator and destination for new work. Stanford Lively Arts plays a leading and collaborative role in the university’s thriving vision of a sustained culture of creativity—one in which the arts integrate with the academic disciplines, flourish as a vital part of campus and community life, and inspire new perspectives on our lives and culture.
Visit Website | Purchase Tickets
For more information contact All About Jazz.
