“Someone told me you can’t play slap bass on a fretless, but when Prince picked up my bass he slapped the heck out of it!” Esperanza Spalding on jamming with Prince, and her stunning Justin Bieber upset

Central to bassist Esperanza Spalding’s bedazzling career has been her flair for the unexpected. Born in Portland, Oregon on October 18, 1984, Spalding, along with her brother, was raised in the working-class King section by her single mom. She credits seeing Yo-Yo Ma perform on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood when she was just four as her initial attraction to music.

A year later she began playing violin, spending the next decade with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. At age 14, while attending the Northwest Academy performing arts high school on a scholarship, she ventured into a music room and began messing around with an acoustic bass.

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