Esperanza_Spalding

On October 17, 2012, I attended a performance by Esperanza Spalding at the Brooks Theatre. I personally did not care for the concert. Part of the reason is because I do not care for the jazz genre of music, however, the main part of the reason is because I did not feel that there was anything that had a “wow” factor. For a Grammy award-winning artist, I expected the performance to be a lot more impressive than it really was. I do not deny that Esperanza and the Radio Music Society have musical talent, I just feel as though the talent wasn’t harnessed and used in a way that drew you in and made you want to hear more or go out and buy the album. Esperanza Spalding knew she wanted to be a musician from a very young age after seeing the famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform. From there, she went on to teach herself violin at the age of five and earned herself a spot in the Chamber Music Society of Oregon, where she landed the role of concertmaster by age fifteen. Spalding soon branched out from classical music and found her niche in the genre of jazz, playing both acoustic and electric bass, and became the first jazz musician to win a Grammy for “Best New Artist”. The jazz genre of music, born out of a mix of African American and European music, got its start at the beginning of the twentieth century, predominantly in black communities across the Southern United States and has since developed into many distinctive styles, ranging from New Orleans jazz and soul jazz, to jazz rock and punk jazz. Even though I am not a fan of it, It was evident that Spalding captured the roots and essence of the polyrhythms, syncopations, and blues notes that make jazz its very own, unique, music style. Throughout the performance, I could tell Esperanza Spalding and the Radio Music Society knew the story they were trying to tell. They would move to the beat and get lost in the music, and it was clear that they believed every note had something to say. I, on the other hand, struggled over and over again to grasp the meaning. A lot of times it seemed some of the musicians may have lost themselves too much in the music, and forgot to pay attention to their parts, resulting in wrong notes and off-beat playing. The electric guitar player in particular seemed to be having a hard time keeping his parts together. There were a couple of times where he had a solo and it seemed he would stop in the middle of it and then start back up again, losing some notes in the process. The musicality of the performance in general seemed disjointed to me and I found it difficult to pick out any kind of rhythm or melody, which I wasn’t expecting. This may have just been the style, and I simply didn’t understand it, but I do think there could have been more cohesiveness or at least something clearly distinguishable amidst all the noise. Despite the disjointed and confusing rhythms and melodies of the performance, I was able to pick out an overall theme. Spalding did a phenomenal job with some of the spoken explanations of why she was playing what she was playing, and with the lyrical content of her music. What I gained out of the concert was the essence of human nature. Spalding sang about losing the one you love, treating and thanking the one you love right, being one with nature, those feel good songs on the radio that can turn any bad day around, and human innocence. Everything she had to say was completely relatable to our inherent human nature. We all know what it is like to experience love, loss, and innocence. What it’s like to walk outside and enjoy nature, or to get in the car and crank up the radio to escape. She even included the audience by teaching us a song and letting us sing with her. To me that was the highlight of the whole performance. It truly solidified what she was trying to convey about music being able to express the root of what we, as humans are really all about. The performance from a visual standpoint also was not up to par in my opinion. The stage seemed thrown together last minute, and very crowded. The only thematic element that gave the stage any personality was a large picture of an old-time radio that all the brass musicians sat behind, and even that looked like a half-hearted attempt to make the stage fit with the theme of the Radio Music Society. The musicians and the objects on stage also seemed to be placed awkwardly. The keyboardist had his back to the audience almost the entire time, and the drum shield wasn’t placed in front of the drums; it was placed to the left of them on the floor between Esperanza Spalding and the keyboardist. To me, it just looked like more clutter and didn’t appear to serve a purpose. Overall, the performance was okay. Spalding and her musicians obviously have some talent, however jazz is simply not my cup of tea. Based on the performance I witnessed at Brooks Theatre, nothing shouted “Grammy award winning artist”. I would recommend the show to people who like jazz, but for those who don’t, I say don’t waste your time or money. I left the performance confused and with a pounding headache trying to make sense of the complexity that is Esperanza Spalding and the Radio Music Society.