esperanza_spaulding

Subtitle: Esperanza Spalding Once Slummed it with the Likes of Me

Congrats to Esperanza Spalding, the virtuoso jazz bassist/vocalist extraordinaire who won the Grammy for Best New Artist last night. Not only is it amazing that an actual talented musician won this award (go figure!), but she beat the presumable shoo-in Justin Bieber. (And well done, Bieberites, channeling all your negative energy through your vapid, tween hive mind and trying to cast a pall over the event.)

Esperanza and I played a couple forgettable, low-profile recitals together at Berklee. Who would have guessed back then that she would go on to be world-famous, and that I would be… administering this website? Uh, everyone, actually. We all knew she was destined for greatness.

Congratulations, Esperanza!