Esperanza Spalding and Wayne Shorter: Jazz Invention

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Academy of Achievement

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4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2017

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Esperanza Spalding - bass player, composer, lyricist and singer - is one of the most exciting artists in contemporary jazz. Wayne Shorter is a legendary saxophonist and composer whose career began in the bebop era of the 1950's, and has continued until today. He began playing with Art Blakey, became part of Miles Davis' groundbreaking quintet, and then formed one of the most influential fusion jazz bands, "Weather Report." Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding are from different jazz eras and from different sides of the country, but they have become friends and artistic soulmates, who share many of the same views about making music and the creative process. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2017

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thelonious Monk, the high priest of Beepop, would have been a hundred years old this month, October 2017. The The influence he had on jazz as both a musician and a composer is hard to overstate.
0:31.0	Well, we decided to celebrate Monk's birthday with an episode about two
0:35.8	jazz grades who are inher just starting her second.
0:53.0	One grew up on the East Coast,
0:55.0	the other on the West.
0:56.0	One plays Sax, one plays bass, and sings.
1:00.0	The way you look at me, when you think I'm not looking tells me
1:05.8	Your heart's sleeping dying on the by someone you love before me
1:11.8	But there's great crossover in their life stories and in their approaches to playing and
1:17.2	composing music. I'm talking here about Esperanza Spalding and Wayne Shorter.
1:23.4	I knew I was going to be dedicated to following this path of the creative process
1:31.7	all the way to the line and there's no end of the line.
1:35.0	All you can do is cultivate and bring out
1:40.0	and bring out what you're hearing based on your life and your dreams and your fears and your wishes.
1:50.0	Bring it out the best you possibly can and then find the people in the world who will dig it.
1:56.6	Because there's even if it's one in a million that's still a lot of people who will like your music.
2:01.5	I'm going to try a little improvisation of my own, weaving their
2:05.4	tales together on this episode of What It Takes, a podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.
2:15.0	I'm Alice Winkler.
2:18.0	Madamay, this child is gifted,
2:21.0	and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
2:24.0	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity and you don't take it, you may never have another job.
	...

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