Zitat des Tages von Esperanza Spalding:
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 always say that the problem with jazz accessibility is not the content of the music, it's people's ability to access it.
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.
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.
Your sanity is harder to get back than money or contacts. You are the magic. You are the art. You can't lose that.
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.'
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.
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 love Aretha Franklin, Edith Piaf, Blondie.
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.
When I was a kid, people called me Emily rather than Esperanza, even though my full name is Esperanza Emily Spalding.
Jazz has always been a melting pot of influences and I plan to incorporate them all.
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.
