Saturday, September 26, 2009

Jazz in Anchorage

On Friday, armed with two bottles of wine, I entered the adorable condo of my colleague, Nicole. She is a graduate of Vermont Law School, too, and works at my firm. She has just returned from a month in India. The aroma in her apartment was attributed to the Indian dish on the stove. Shortly after I arrived, five other women joined us for dinner. I found myself surrounded by fellow professionals, some single, some in relationships, and one other married lady, like me. It was the first time in a long while that I had laughed and talked about something other than work.

We carpooled to Anchorage's Discovery Theater. We were there to behold a 23 year old jazz vocalist who plays bass, including electric bass. Portland, OR, native, Esperanza Spalding, walked onto the stage with her drummer, pianist, and guitar player. For the next two hours, we tapped our feet, nodded our heads, and dropped our jaws in amazement. Her energy was palable, and her stories that related her songwriting to us had us in stitches. At such a young age, she has already played for Obama three times and remains humble about her talent, astounding as it is.

I encourage you to buy her latest CD (I ordered mine from amazon.com earlier today). My favorite line last night came from a female anthem,

"I am not going to waste my diva energy on you."

Sing it, girl.

1 comment:

Flo said...

I'm so glad you had a nice girls' night out. Esperanza's music sounds really amazing, and she's even better because of her humility. It's true that a girl can be both gracious AND diva :)