Sunday, January 9, 2011

Vintage Shopping With the Bassist Esperanza Spalding


"ON a recent Tuesday, the musician Esperanza Spalding was out searching for “mildly androgynous” vintage items to wear onstage.
“I would like to have a stylist, but it’s tricky: it has to be free from the trends,” Ms. Spalding said as she entered David Owens Vintage Clothing on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. “Otherwise people don’t really see you. They see how close or how far you are from the look you’re going for.”
A 26-year-old bassist, vocalist and composer from Portland, Ore., she moved to the West Village in June. Through March of next year she’s touring with her band around the United States and Europe, so shopping at home is a rarity. “I do a lot of the picking and finding when I’m out and about in different cities,” she said. “I don’t care about fashion. I dress for the music.”
Ms. Spalding taught herself to play the violin at age 4 and joined the Chamber Music Society of Oregon a year later. At 16 she switched to the double bass. On her third album, “Chamber Music Society,” she and her band combine improvisation and string trio arrangements with lilting vocals."
LOVE Esperanza Spalding--and her style. And her Afro! Really love a woman who can rock the Afro. I'd love to go shopping with her, in short. It doesn't even have to be vintage; it could be grocery.

I'll have to settle for reading the profile The New Yorker did on her a few years back. I keep meaning to track a copy down.

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