No one was more surprised than Esperanza Spalding that she won the Best New Artist Grammy earlier this year.
Except perhaps Justin Bieber, a pop phenomenon who found himself aced by a 26-year-old jazz bassist-vocalist whose art is a tad more sophisticated than the commercial music of our day.
This kind of thing doesn't just happen at the Grammys, the development catching Spalding somewhat off guard.
Yet Spalding appears to have the musical wherewithal for a long run, regardless of whether the Grammys or the pop marketplace pay attention to her in coming years. The easy virtuosity of her bass work and her fear-no-borders approach to repertoire suggest that "Chamber Music Society" may be just the beginning of an important musical statement (her earlier recordings – "Junjo" in 2006 and "Esperanza" in 2008 – similarly roamed freely among genres).
And though the Grammys carry minimal weight in the world of jazz, which caters to a rather demanding group of connoisseurs, Spalding's win can only help the art form.
Though Spalding isn't so sure.
"It doesn't necessarily have a positive impact on jazz," says Spalding, who was trained at one of the country's top jazz schools, the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and began teaching there at 20.
"It's good, I think, if nothing else, for this: If people think they know what jazz is all about, and they think, 'I'm not interested in that listening body,' … they might (now) have an opportunity to be surprised at what's out there.
"If nothing else, that's something cool."
Audiences that attend Spalding's concerts in the wake of her recent acclaim, in other words, may know or care nothing of Spalding's jazz heroes, such saxophonist Joe Lovano (one of the first musicians who hired her). Listeners may be impressed that Spalding performed three times for President Obama – including at his Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 2009, at White House request – yet may never have heard of Jobim or Bobby McFerrin or any of Spalding's other musical influences.
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