Esperanza Spalding talks music, fame and more 

Not too long ago, it seemed like only serious music fans — and maybe the National Public Radio crowd — were familiar with bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding. Her early solo work — which fused jazz with pop, world music, soul and more on the albums Junjo and Esperanza — was gobbled up by aficionados across the globe.

Now, more than five years after she stepped on the scene, she's back with a brand-new, classical-music-flavored CD, Chamber Music Society. And this time around, though not a household name, she's on the radar of more than just music geeks. Her profile is a little higher these days due to a few articles in some big-time publications (such as a recent feature in Oprah Winfrey's popular O Magazine) and several appearances on some highly viewed TV programs (including a gig playing in a Prince tribute during the 2010 Black Entertainment Television Awards this past June).

And with Spalding's star on the rise, it's a great time to catch her strumming her upright bass — rocking her big, beautiful afro — in the flesh ... before she starts playing arenas and the like. Luckily for folks in the Queen City, she'll be making a rare appearance in Charlotte on Sept. 24 as the opening salvo for this year's edition of the annual Charlotte Sunset Jazz Festival. Presented every year by the people at Pride magazine, the long-running music fest will take place over the course of two days. Spalding will kick off the festivities, and Creative Loafing just so happened to track down the elusive artist to talk about her live show, her new album, fame and more.

Creative Loafing: So, how are you liking the reaction to your new album?

Esperanza Spalding: Oh ... I feel good about it. And I think the general reaction has been pretty positive, which is wonderful.

Now, do you actually read reviews and stuff like that when your work comes out?

Not so much. I figure you're just as likely to get a good review as a bad review. And I've read really terrible reviews for records that I've loved and really amazing reviews for records that I haven't loved so much. So they don't really mean anything to me so much. I guess I'm happy when somebody likes it. But reviews to me are not necessarily the place to get, you know, that satisfaction.

Where do you get that satisfaction?

The live shows.

Speaking of live shows, I've heard you refer to your latest album as "intimate" — and "music for friends." But, with some of the spaces you'll be performing in while you're on the road, how do you intend to make your live performances more intimate?

Well, it's listening music. It's very intimate music, you know, and we're going to do our best to do justice to that when we present it. It's a very kind of a low-fi presentation; no pyrotechnics, and it's kind of a low element of theater loudly into it. I'm kind of inviting you into my intimate, personal space, in a way. Everyone in the audience, big or small, gets to kind of be a part of this very intimate, musical conversation happening on stage.

What kind of band do you bring with you on the road?

We will be seven total on the stage ... it's three strings, a second vocalist — and obviously I'm singing, too — and then a piano trio. So, piano, drums, and bass.

The last time I saw you perform was on TV at the BET Awards. I know a lot of people were wondering, "Who's that woman with the big afro?"

I know (laughs).

But based on that appearance and the piece about you that ran in O Magazine not too long ago, it seems like you're starting to get more mainstream attention. What are your feelings about a more mass audience consuming your music?

My main feeling is kind of like "Wow! How does this work?" Something really bizarre ... is going to come out of my mouth right now — my own stereotype about my own people. So, I hope you don't write this ... out of context to some degree to sound messed up.

OK.

I know one time I was going to play ... one of my concerts for a predominantly black, young audience, And I remember going, "OK, well, I don't want to do, like, too much of this heavy, free, avant garde [jazz] cause I don't think people would appreciate it." And my friend at the time was like, "Esperanza! Everyone always says that kind of stuff, but that's not true. That's just a messed up mindset of what we think a certain demographic of people can and can't appreciate, and that's not fair. Everybody is open to everything if they give it a chance to make their own assessment about it." And I was like, "Damn, I guess that's kind of true." I mean, I had to look at myself as the best example. I have no one commitment to one sound, and if I just have the chance to be exposed to something, if it's something I would like, then I like it — and if I don't, I don't. It has nothing to do with the genre or the idiom or anything like that. And my career has kind of been driving that point home to me, over and over again. Since that point ... every time I think I know what a certain group of people want to hear and I just do what I do uncompromisingly, I'm always pleasantly surprised by the positive response. And that's kind of why I'm really excited about this project. I think that there's a whole demographic of people that don't feel connected with classical music, and they don't feel connected with the history of classical music; and I think just because of that — and maybe because classical musicians aren't intending to expand their breadth to a wider demographic — that stereotype and that assumption kind of gets continued and reaffirmed. And so my hope with every project that comes up is that I'm doing my best to create really meaningful music that I love, that means a lot to me and is of a high quality. And for some reason, people listen to what I do — a lot of different people. And so hopefully my name and my reputation can be a catalyst for people to enter and be exposed to types of music they might not necessarily [have heard]. So, I guess that's my very long-winded response to your question.

One last thing I want to know: What kind of direction did you get from your record company when it came to the making of your new CD? I mean, I think it would be hard to give an artist like you direction because you have such a singular vision.

(Laughs) That's really amazing what you said. It does seem kind of weird that some record executives would be trying to give me direction! (Laughs) No, I've heard all kinds of different things — from the hilarious, to the infuriating, to the ignorant, to the brilliant, and insightful and meaningful — from these people [whose] primary area of expertise is business and marketing. And what I've learned is sometimes what they have to say is really helpful for the music, and sometimes it means nothing to the music; and you never know until the end of the process — well, sometimes you know right away — which one it's going to be. But what I do know is that the pity is that a lot of young artists are unfortunately kind of at the mercy of that advice and of those suggestions and of that guidance. And on my last project, I kind of was at the mercy to a certain degree of what the label had in mind — only because I had no structure for them to refer to, to see if it worked. So, of course they had their idea of what was going to work and what wasn't, and we certainly had some disagreements about different things. And on some levels I think it compromised the project last time, and on some levels I think it helped. So this time, with this project, I was in the middle of some kind of bizarre negotiations and kind of doing the record on my own. So the record label through the creative process wasn't really involved at all; they only kind of started participating in the conversation after we already recorded everything. So this last project, uniquely, was ... my own little brainchild and my own little baby that me and [co-producer] Gil Goldstein got to work on in this cocoon of creativity, outside of the influence of the label — because they were worried about business stuff that had nothing to do with the artistic side. And what they're going to get to see, if this record is a success, they'll get to see that, like, "Oh wow. Sometimes artists have a concept that is totally outside of our ability to understand how it's going to work in the market, and it still works because people connect with the art." So I think if this record works, that's going to be a really good thing for them and will probably, really positively, affect the conversation between artists and labels. Because any artist will tell you that's always, like, the main problem ... trying to convince someone that is business and market minded that: "Look, this new creative idea that I have is valid and will work so just give it a chance." And that's always a type of conversation that any artist is having with the label. It's like, I'm not a business person in any sense of the word, myself; some musicians are, but I'm not at all. I have no business skills, and I don't necessarily want them. So, I kind of depend, to a certain degree, on the insight of these businessmen, and I realize that. And it usually doesn't work the other way — that these people realize they are not artists (laughs), so it's a complicated conversation. And when people listen to this particular record, they are getting an opportunity, I think, to hear a record that is being promoted pretty mainstream without the influence of mainstream business people ... and their concept of what works and what doesn't — which is actually pretty rare, to be quite honest with you.

Esperanza Spalding plays the Knight Theater (430 S. Tryon St.) at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24. Tickets range from $29.50 to $64.50 ($64.50 includes VIP reception at 7 p.m.). The Charlotte Sunset Jazz Festival continues on Saturday with free live music on Sept. 25 at Marshall Park (800 E. Third St.). For more information, visit www.charlottesunsetjazzfestival.com.