Esperanza Spalding African American Music Comparison

Music is an intrapersonal, adaptive, global, and ever evolving form of art. Considering that music is adaptive, it is a reflection of cultural, political, and social events of a time period. Contemporary music compares to vintage music by virtue of derivation. In the instance that American artists and genres derive from earlier forms of European music, there are several similarities yet stark differences that aid in the progression of layers and depth in musical performance. In efforts to illustrate the similarities and differences of old and new American and European music, modern day artist Esperanza Spalding’s jazz musical qualities are exceptionally compared to the qualities of classical music.
Esperanza Spalding is widely known as an African American jazz bassist. She was born October 18, 1984. Spalding has excelled as a composer, concertmaster, bandleader, vocalist, bassist, double bassist, violinist, cellist, …show more content…
The characteristics of American Jazz era of the 21st century closely resemble that of the European Classical era of the 19th-20th centuries. Jazz music is considered to be the free spirited spin off of it’s older sister classical music. “Classical composers envy the melodic verve, spontaneity and open emotion of improvisation; jazz musicians look to the larger scale, the coloristic and rhythmic flexibility and the respect given classical music.” Jazz music is defined by two fundamental elements of Classical music (the swing beat and the prevalence of improvisation). Since this is true, it indefinitely should be appreciated by critics almost as much as Classical music is. While the rhythms are not of classical nature, the harmonies and melodies of jazz stem directly from European music. In theory then, the boundaries between jazz and classical music seem to me to have been falsely erected. After all: What is jazz but ad-libbed classical music with a swing