(off)beat

It always impresses me what most musicians are capable of. Alan Hampton, a prominent jazz bassist, who tours around with some of the heaviest hitters in the jazz world, is apparently an extremely talented singer/songwriter. I probably shouldn’t be surprised, but I pleasantly am. This is from a live show in NYC, and sports an all-star cast. 

Alan Hampton – acoustic guitar/vocals
Josh Mease – bass
Lisa Harris – vocals
Nicole Hurst – vocals
Robert Glasper – piano
Jason Moran – piano
Kendrick Scott – drums

this should make you want to listen to it. right now. 

besides being unbelievably adorable, this bass player has just thrown it down and won the best new artist for a grammy. 

Here’s an interview and a look in her iPod from WBGO. 

Side note:

I have been reading on the internet about this win, and I see the main issue that people have with Esperanza is the fact that “no one knows her”. This brings up two points from me:

• 1. She’s got an incredibly strong jazz following. I don’t go longer than a week without hearing someone mention her name, in a positive context. Her music has spread throughout the country, and tons of people listen to her. 
• 2. The reason most people give arguing whether or not Drake or even Bieber should have won the Grammy award is the fact that “no one knows who Esperanza Spalding is”. Since when does the amount of people that listen to you determine the level of talent or hard work you have put into your craft? This is 95% good marketing and 5% talent. Just look at the amount of production that goes into Justin Bieber’s persona, it’s an impressive amount of post production. (His hair cut can’t stay like that forever). If we were to give Grammy’s to the most talented musicians, I’m sure a handful of people that were given an award tonight would have lost it to some musicians in New York City. In the end, it comes to down to how the music sounds.

All in all, Congrats to Esperanza for being the first jazz artist to win a Grammy in 35 years.

heavy. One of the greatest composers of the 20th century speaks. And a lot of speaking he does.