Esperanza Spalding

If the music world was shocked when Esperanza Spalding became the first jazz act to win the Best New Artist award at the 2011 Grammys, it was nothing to the shock Esperanza herself felt. Her unusual Christian name is the Spanish word for "hope" reflecting a diverse ethnic background - part-Welsh, part-Hispanic, part-native American - and she grew up in a ghetto raised by her single parent mother. Naturally gifted, however, Spalding taught herself to play violin by the time she was five, going on to spend most of her childhood playing with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. Drawn to jazz, she also played cello, oboe and clarinet, before concentrating on the upright bass from her early teens. At 15 she was writing songs and singing with local indie band Noise For Pretend and started playing solo gigs in local blues clubs. After touring with Patti Austin, Spalding formed her own trio and her reputation as an outstanding bassist, imaginative writer and sensual singer was confirmed by her album Junjo (2006) and the more experimental jazz-world fusion albums Esperanza (2008) and Chamber Music Society (2010). The latter was credited with taking jazz into new territory, touching on hip hop, and helped her beat Justin Bieber and other more fancied candidates for the 2011 Grammy.

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