Esperanza Spalding

Shows

Episodes

  1. Esperanza Spalding

    03/10/2020

    Esperanza Spalding

    Bassist, songwriter, and composer Esperanza Spalding sits with Bruce Headlam to discuss her latest work and the opera she’s writing with the legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter. They also discuss why Esperanza shies away from being labeled a prodigy, what it’s like jamming at Joni Mitchell's house, and how, despite her improvisational approach, she’s so much more than just a jazz musician. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    51 min
  2. The Grammy nominee you need to hear: Esperanza Spalding

    01/29/2025

    The Grammy nominee you need to hear: Esperanza Spalding

    How do you bring the African Diaspora to the Grammys? Esperanza Spalding and Milton Nascimento's contrasting tones make a perfect team on Milton + esperanza, a collection of covers, duets, and original songs that have earned the pair a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Today, Brittany and Esperanza get into the years-long intergenerational friendship behind the music, and the Brazilian influences on the album. Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus. Join NPR+ today. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

    18 min
  3. The Healing Power of Pop with Esperanza Spalding

    10/26/2021

    The Healing Power of Pop with Esperanza Spalding

    It. Has. Been. A. Year. We’ve felt it; you’ve felt it. Sometimes, it’s comforting to consider how universal that overwhelming sense of blah is. Other days, woof, it can be tough to see the light. That’s the subject of today’s episode, brought to you by our producer Megan Lubin. When Megan hit an especially low point earlier this year, she noticed something in the music she was listening to: Über-popular artists making explicit references to the state of their mental health and the things they do to cope with it. It made her want to know more about the impact of those lyrics, so she dug around and found an academic who studies that very thing: Alex Kresovich, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media who has authored a bunch of studies on mental health and popular music. In today’s episode, we walk through one of those studies with him and learn how influential lyrical content can be — even when you’re not paying super-close attention. Alex’s research, and research like it, opens up the possibility that pop artists are an underestimated asset when it comes to mental-health messaging. “People like to point at pop music as a source of problems, not a source of solutions,” he says. Alex sees his job as guiding the scientific community toward new data that could change how we understand the value of pop-music lyrics — “laying the railroad ties,” as he puts it. In the second half of today’s episode, we talk to an artist who has taken the concept of music as medicine to a whole new level. Over the course of her career, Esperanza Spalding has reimagined the music-making process — transforming it from one designed to meet her label’s commercial needs to one designed to meet the mental-health needs of her immediate community. With her new album Songwrights Apothecary Lab, Spalding offers up a collection of songs for “releasing the heaviness of a seemingly endless blue state,” for “steadying the vast-spinning ‘potential hurt’ analysis triggered by the bliss of new romance,” and for “slowing down and remembering to make space/time for your elders.” Spalding made clear that this way of “musicking” is nothing new: It’s like the oldest thing ever….we’re playing with the origin of music. The origin of music being: a response to others in your community, in your surroundings. And the response is intuitive! When you hum for a baby or when you’re sitting with somebody who is grieving and you, you feel compelled to hum, or when you’re excited and go, “Wow!” That’s music! Spalding’s view of music these days opened our eyes wide to the true healing power of individual songs and just how accessible music is when we need it. Songs Discussed girl in red - Serotonin Billie Eilish - Getting Older Julia Michaels ft. Selena Gomez - Anxiety J. Cole ft. kiLL edward - FRIENDS Lil Nas X - VOID Kehlani - 24/7 Kendrick Lamar - u Juice WRLD - Lucid Dreams Panic! At the Disco - King of the Clouds Shawn Mendes - In My Blood Ariana Grande - breathin Logic, Alessia Cara, Khalid - 1-800-273-8255 Billie Eilish ft. Khalid - lovely Lil Uzi Vert - XO Tour Llif3 Esperanza Spalding - Formwela 3 Esperanza Spalding - Formwela 6 Esperanza Spalding - Formwela 10 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    35 min
  4. Episode 26 - Esperanza Spalding

    09/27/2016

    Episode 26 - Esperanza Spalding

    Multi-hyphenate jazz star Esperanza Spalding stops by Talk Easy to talk about her career, being an inconsistent person, developing that into creative energy, and the artistic value of being attentive to others. See Esperanza Spalding on tour: http://www.esperanzaspalding.com/tour/ Music for the show provided by @Vanilla. Original illustrations by Krishna Shenoi: http://krishnabalashenoi.com/. Learn more about the show at http://talkeasypod.com  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    1h 14m
  5. QLS Classic: Esperanza Spalding

    04/01/2024

    QLS Classic: Esperanza Spalding

    Travel back to early 2020 when Esperanza Spalding stopped by the studio to talk about the evolution of her artistry, the charms of Portland, Oregon, and some deeper discussions about spirituality.   Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    45 min
  6. Amanpour: Scott Jennings, Alec MacGillis, Tim Robbins and Esperanza Spalding

    01/25/2020

    Amanpour: Scott Jennings, Alec MacGillis, Tim Robbins and Esperanza Spalding

    Scott Jennings, former aide to Mitch McConnell, and Alec MacGillis, author of "The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell," join Christiane Amanpour to dig down into the rise of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, his relationship to President Trump and his approach to the impeachment trial. Tim Robbins, the award-winning actor and director, talks about directing his new play "The New Colossus," that pays homage to all the immigrants and refugees over the years that have set sale for America in search of a better life. He reflects on his iconic roles in "Mystic River" and "Shawshank Redemption" and how he channels his advocacy through his art. Our Walter Isaacson sits down with Esperanza Spalding, the two-time award-winning Grammy musician to explain how she's pushing the boundaries of jazz and using music to heal the soul in her latest album, "12 Little Spells."To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    58 min
  7. Caitlin Moran, Ellie Simmonds, Esperanza Spalding, Brandi Morin

    07/06/2023

    Caitlin Moran, Ellie Simmonds, Esperanza Spalding, Brandi Morin

    Anita is joined by the five time Paralympic gold medallist Ellie Simmonds to discuss her new documentary where she sets out to find her birth parents. Ellie was adopted within months of being born and whilst she has always known she was adopted, she hasn't previously tried to find her birth parents, until now. Five times Grammy award winner, the bassist, lyricist and composer, Esperanza Spalding has become a prominent voice in the jazz world. At 38 she has released eight albums and has collaborated with many distinguished artists, including Terri Lyne Carrington and Toni Visconti. She talks to Anita from the Netherlands, where she will perform at the North Sea Jazz Festival. Canada has a history of disproportionate violence faced by indigenous women, which was called a genocide by a national public inquiry in 2019. The Native Women’s Association of Canada has counted the names of more than 4,000 Indigenous women they believe have been murdered over the last three decades. Brandi Morin is an award-winning journalist who is Cree, Iroquois, French Canadian and puts the abuses suffered by indigenous Canadians front and centre in her work. She joins Anita to explain why. Caitlin Moran’s multi-award-winning bestseller How to Be a Woman has been published in 28 countries. Now she has turned her attention to men, what's wrong with them, what they should do about it and why they need feminism to help. Caitlin joins Anita to discuss her new book What About Men? Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt Studio manager: Gayl Gordon

    56 min
Esperanza Spalding on Apple