At just 25, singer and bassist Esperanza Spalding was handpicked by US President Barak Obama to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. In Malta to participate in the 20th edition of the Malta Jazz Festival, she speaks to David Schembri about music, Malta and everything in between.
As with many renowned jazz musicians, Ms Spalding studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, precious few years after she had started playing the bass at 15 years of age. Unlike most bassists, who start off by playing the easier to play and to afford electric bass, she opted for the wieldy and cumbersome double bass: "I didn't play electric until summer 2008," she says.
And while she clearly can play the instrument well, it is her unique voice that steals the show, as the audience at her performance at Ta' Liesse, in Valletta, got to know, when she got carried away ad-libbing in what was meant to be a sing-along with the audience. "It's always been involved with the voice; it's a tool to use with the voice," she says of the bass.
Dressed in a casual denim dress over her bikini to hit the beach as soon as the interview is over, Ms Spalding reveals a fascination with Malta which goes beyond the postcard-perfect setting of the Grand Harbour, traditionally the backdrop to the Malta Jazz Festival.
"I'd heard so many crazy things about this little island. Just how so many different nations have fought over this small area so many times over the last 2,000, 4,000 years. That's intense and you see it all over. It's incredible. It's interesting to just walk around and see all these different remnants of so many cultures. It's beautiful. I understand why people wanna fight for this place; it's gorgeous."
How did the Obama gig come about?
"Stevie Wonder invited me to perform at the White House last February and that was when the President and the First Lady and some people on their staff heard me play. The next event that they did was a gig with HBO called Poetry, Spoken Word and Music and they thought of me again. In November, for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, they had a few artists in mind and the President mentioned me as an option. I was free to do it, so I did that..." she candidly says.
"We were talking about the fact that the President looked so tired during the ceremony. And I was, like, he looks exhausted, it must be crazy the way you guys travel. And they said: No, this is such an important event to him that he wanted to write the speech himself, so he's been up for the last two days trying to finish the speech and trying to make it just right and make it what he wanted to say," she recounts.
Self-expression is high on her agenda, too:
"Sometimes, I'm feeling different about the song... I probably shouldn't even be singing it 'cause I'm not really feeling it but then I'll find some way to connect the theme of the song to what I'm experiencing, so it makes sense to me and then I want people to know where I'm coming from," she says comparing the intro of the song to a preview of a movie in that it sets the scene to what follows.
She cites "being home for a while, not having pressure, not having deadlines and not being too busy" as the ideal conditions for making music.
"It's not good for musicians to be too busy. It's good to be busy, in the sense that you're playing a lot, but it's not good to be busy with other things which don't have anything to do with music."
Her message to young musicians? "Don't go on Facebook and Myspace and practice. Shut down the computer and pick up your instrument."