Esperanza Spalding Quotes & Sayings

I always say that the problem with jazz accessibility is not the content of the music, it's people's ability to access it. — Esperanza Spalding

My name means 'hope' in Spanish and it's a name I want to live up to. — Esperanza Spalding

I am insubordinate by nature. I can't help it. — Esperanza Spalding

I like to read, and I like dance. I don't dance, but I like to see other people dance. — Esperanza Spalding

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. — Esperanza Spalding

There is an assumption that if you're young and pretty, you will get all these opportunities that are way beyond your musical foundation. — Esperanza Spalding

The Czech ease has become my saving grace for traveling! Plus,with its light weight and small size, I save thousands of dollars every year in airline fees. — Esperanza Spalding

I did grow up in a rough neighborhood in Portland, which is an abstract concept for anybody who's rolled through Portland because now it looks like a TV set, literally. — Esperanza Spalding

When I read, you know, a rough neighborhood of Portland, I'm like - what? - they didn't have kombucha bars there? — Esperanza Spalding

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! — Esperanza Spalding

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. — Esperanza Spalding

You don't have to be fearless to do anything, you can be scared out of your mind. — Esperanza Spalding

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. — Esperanza Spalding

Whoever you are, if you know what you're doing, you don't want other people to overtake the merit of your art. — Esperanza Spalding

On nights that I'm feeling a need to stretch personally and artistically, I tend to put together outfits that are very quirky, mismatched and over-the-top eclectic. — Esperanza Spalding

The music that I make is pretty sincere; it's from my heart and I love it, and what just happened is more people have started to connect with my heart, and I haven't followed some kind of marketing scheme, — Esperanza Spalding

Jazz has always been a melting pot of influences and I plan to incorporate them all. — Esperanza Spalding

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. — Esperanza Spalding

What I'm identifying with is the vision or the idea - whatever was the little nugget that started it. — Esperanza Spalding

Anything I do has to have integrity, so if you just want to make music, it's not difficult finding support. The hard part for a publicist or manager is making a star. — Esperanza Spalding

You can grow up with literally nothing and you don't suffer if you know you're loved and valued. — Esperanza Spalding

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. — Esperanza Spalding

I just think music is so intrinsically linked with images in the culture that we live in that you'll be hard-pressed to have an experience with the music without a preconceived notion. — Esperanza Spalding

Genre boundaries are good for marketing but they all but disappear when you're a player. — Esperanza Spalding

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. — Esperanza Spalding

I'm not gonna sit around and waste my precious divine energy trying to explain and be ashamed of things you think are wrong with me. — Esperanza Spalding

There's the juiciest music that makes me so happy, music that I need on that deserted island when I'm stranded for the rest of my life, and nobody cares that it's there. — Esperanza Spalding

The benefit of the radio is, something beyond your realm of knowledge can surprise you, can enter your realm of knowledge. — Esperanza Spalding

Jazz music just resonates with the frequency of me. — Esperanza Spalding

For what I can imagine and feel and think and hear, I can hardly do anything on the acoustic bass. It used to be just pure frustration of imagining so much more and being able to get to a certain level of execution. — Esperanza Spalding

I never think my music isn't easy until I got to teach it to other people. — Esperanza Spalding

It's weird sometimes to have people not see me or see what I do. — Esperanza Spalding

I write at the piano, so I write things that fit comfortably under my hands, and I'm not thinking in terms of any specific compositional methods. I'm just seeking sounds. — Esperanza Spalding

People are more used to seeing men who are masters at an instrument than women. When people say, 'Oh, she plays like a dude,' it's usually dudes who are the ones saying it. They're saying, 'Oh, she's as good as us.' Of course, that's a stupid statement. It's totally stereotypical to say, 'We have an advantage on this, and if anyone else can do it well, it's only because they're like us.' I think more men are starting to learn that this attitude is totally hollow and based in imagination. As more women are involved in music, this kind of thing gets said less and less. — Esperanza Spalding

I grew up with an incredibly loving and supportive family that gave me the impression there were a lot of options for me out there. — 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. — Esperanza Spalding