“The shows I’ve been playing lately are like a blur,” says Esperanza Spalding.

The former child prodigy, Grammy Award-winner and American jazz-fusion extraordinaire is borderline delirious as she talks through transit, getting in and out of cars and moving towards the next part of her world tour for her new concept album, Emily’s D+Evolution. She’s being asked how audiences have responded thus far to the new material being performed live. After a pause, she confesses in all honesty – the delirium and exhaustion settling in – that she just doesn’t know.

“It’s like an out-of-body experience,” she says. “I’m so overwhelmed and oversaturated with thinking about what needs to be done differently, what lights should go where in what parts – I’m so caught up in the details that sometimes I can’t even tell if people are responding well to the music. Especially to the new stuff. I mean, I know people like it – I’ve had interactions with people over it that have been so enthusiastic – but it’s all over in such a flash that you can’t really take it all in. I go onstage, I’m Emily, and then it’s all over.”

Emily’s D+Evolution was recorded by Spalding, her band and various other musicians at North Hollywood’s NRG Studios, which have previously housed projects by artists as diverse as No Doubt, Fear Factory and The Monkees. Behind the boards was Tony Visconti, a long-time collaborator and producer for the late, great David Bowie. Indeed, this is Visconti’s first credited production following the January release of Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, and one certainly recognises some of Bowie’s duality and creative spirit on Emily’s D+Evolution – especially considering the album is performed by Spalding’s alter ego, Emily, who ostensibly serves as her very own Ziggy Stardust.

“The truth is that there were very few premeditations about this project,” Spalding says. “I was chilling – literally just taking time off from writing and touring and all that – when inspiration hit very unexpectedly. It was so strong and so vibrant that I knew right then and there that it was what I was going to do next. I suppose it was in the execution process that things became a bit more intentional.

“I knew I was going to play the character of Emily, and I knew that it was going to be her voice being channelled through this music. It’s her philosophy. This album is the energy that she personifies. I also knew that this project had to be one that was interdisciplinary – it was always going to be more than just standing there and singing the songs.”

Given the considerable creative changes on this record, incorporating more funk and rock elements than her previous LPs, Spalding is asked whether she fears becoming predictable, or perhaps even finding herself in a comfort zone as she creates more music to add to her canon. She shuts down the idea instantly – her goal, as an artist, is to be quite literally fearless.

“This is my fifth record, and each of them has been a really different experience every time,” she says. “I don’t think I’ve ever developed a pattern in my music. There’s no formula. I can’t say things like ‘I tend to…’ or ‘I go for…’ – that’s just not the kind of songwriter I am. Each project has essentially started with me simply having an idea, being inspired by it and taking it as far as I can. I’m curating a vibe, and that’s definitely a big part of this record.”

Since her elevation to a wider audience in the early 2010s thanks to her unexpected Grammy win for Best New Artist, her performance on Austin City Limits and her tribute to Prince at the BET Awards, Spalding has been perceived as one of the most celebrated acts of the new generation of jazz – and indeed, a gateway artist of sorts for many younger listeners to find their way into the world of jazz and its various subgenres. Spalding appreciates that platform to a certain extent, but also acknowledges what she perceives to be her own place of privilege in terms of exposure.

“I’m definitely aware that I’m not always making the kind of music that people necessarily are exposed to on an everyday basis,” she says. “The fact that a lot of people hear what I do is amazing, unquestionably, but we live in a society that favours and pays attention to pretty women. As a pretty woman, I’m not going to try and pretend that it somehow isn’t a factor in people being exposed to my music. I also, however, happen to be a badass musician. So when people come to my music, for whatever reason, I know that the quality of the musicianship is still getting through. Maybe it will make people’s ears open up a little to make them want to hear more of that kind of sound.”

So, what next? Emily is around for the time being – Spalding is taking her out on the road for the rest of the year, including a maiden voyage to Australia, which will entail appearances at both the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and the Sydney Opera House’s Vivid LIVE program. “I’ve never been out there,” says Spalding, “but I’ve wanted to for a very long time now. I just know it’s going to be something special.”

But there may not be another album to come from Emily. “I don’t think she’ll stick around,” says Spalding. “I think this all came to be to serve a function in my own life. It’s the equivalent of a volcano erupting, or kicking in a door. Once it’s done, it’s out there. You can’t go back from there. The energy has to move on. It doesn’t have to stay in one place. The force is there, and it’s there for you to access. In a way, she is that force.”

[Esperanza Spalding photo by Holly Andres]

Esperanza Spalding’sEmily’s D+Evolution isout now through Concord/Universal; and she performsSaturday June 4 atJoan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House, as part of Vivid LIVE 2016.

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