The Pulse of Entertainment: Esperanza Spalding's ‘Past, Present, Future'
Tour Arrives at Warner Theatre in DC January 26, 2025
(January 21, 2025) - "A pool of songs I draw from," said five-time
Grammy winning Jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding (Irma Nejando) to me when asked about the songs
to be performed at her concert slated for Sunday January 26, 2025 at the Warner Theatre in Washington,
DC (8pmEST). "It's what I love and what people love. That's why I call it the ‘Past, Present and Future
Tour'. Future...is a window into what I am into now. That's where the dance piece comes from."
Her concert will have two dancers performing. Esperanza, a Concord Records OMK artist with eight albums
to her credit, goes on to explain her "research" into why people do not dance anymore to Jazz music started her
showcasing dancers during her performances. She explained that in the past people danced to such Jazz forms as Swing, but
not with the Jazz played today.
"Its weird people don't dance to Jazz...that bothered me," the Oregon native stressed
about when discussing how the dance portion of her show was added. "I started researching history...the Swing era, Juke-Joint...
I started talking to my elders about when people stop dancing to Jazz."
The reply from the elders was that white people
didn't want black people to have that kind of freedom. Thereby, systematically changing the style of Jazz.
"I said I have to learn how to play (Jazz) to integrate dance," said the Boston Music Award winner.
"To create a space to encourage movement. We all have dance in our DNA."
I
asked Esperanza Spalding, also a two-time Grammy nominated artist, about her dance organization Off Brand, co-founded with
Antonio Brown, and she said, "I treat it like a lab."
So, get ready to dance
to Jazz when visiting the "Past, Present and Future" Tour of Esperanza Spalding. Spalding started out as a prodigy
violin player before moving to the stand-up bass. At the tender age of five Esperanza was a violinist playing for the Chamber
Music Society of Oregon. She went to a high school of the arts where she was introduced to the stand-up bass.
During her
tour Esperanza will be performing songs from her past, present and a look into her music coming-up in the future. She debuted
in 2006 on a Spanish record label. In 2008 she released a project on an American record label. In 2010 she released her third
album "Chamber Music Society" which reached #34 on Billboard Chart and garnered her first Grammy Award. As they
say, the rest is history.
"I started (playing bass) because I was walking past a class with an open door and it was
there," she said when I asked.
She went on to play the stand-up bass strings and fell in love with the bass string
sound.
"I picked up playing that instrument," she concluded.
At 20 she was asked to teach a summer program, a basic
music class, when she was straight out of college (Berklee). She went on to teach a film scoring program and from that she
started teaching the practice of music at Harvard. Esperanza has also garnered two honorary doctorates from Berklee and Cal
Institution of the Arts. The composer is a self-taught stand-up bass and guitar player.
"I did a Jazz line," she
explained about her early teaching experience as we came to the end of our interview. "The students were so welcomed
(to Jazz). It's a different culture from Classical music (what she was playing before Jazz)."
Don't miss the Esperanza
Spalding's ‘Past, Present, Future" Tour Sunday January 26, 2025 at the Warner Theatre at 8pmEST and be prepared
to dance. www.EsperanzaSpalding.com
SYNDICATED
COLUMN: Dr. Eunice Moseley has an estimated weekly readership of over one million with The
Pulse of Entertainment. She is also a Public Relations and Business Management Strategist and Consultant at
Freelance Associates, and is Promotions Director (at-large) for The Baltimore Times. www.ThePulseofEntertainment.com EVENTS: "Uplifting Minds II" Entertainment Conference (ULMII),
founded by Eunice in 1999, is into its 25th year. Next events are coming to Baltimore via Zoom Saturday
April 20, 2024, presented by Security Square Mall and The Baltimore Times, and Los
Angeles via Zoom Saturday, November 9 2024. The ULMII event is a free entertainment conference
offering a Professional Industry Panel Q&A Session, a Professional Talent Showcase and National
Talent Competition (vocal, songwriting, dance and acting) where aspiring artists have a chance to receive over $19,000
valued in prizes/product/services. Log onto www.UpliftingMinds2.comor to RSVP for Zoom Access at EventBrite.com or email info@ThePulseofEntertainment.com.
