Esperanza Spalding on the “Suffering” of Songwriting and Her Dream Collaboration with Milton Nascimento

The Great Creators with Guy Raz

From a lightning bolt moment watching cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood as a child to becoming a 5-time Grammy winner, Esperana Spalding’s journey has been driven by an innate love for music. But along the way, she’s often felt misunderstood and misrepresented in the press.

Today, Esperanza sits with Guy to talk more about the forces that propelled her rise, her decision to livestream the 77-hour process of writing an album from start to finish in real time, and the lessons she learned about presence and love while collaborating with her musical hero, Milton Nascimento, on their new album, “milton + esperanza.”

Get the new album here: https://esperanzaspalding.bandcamp.com/album/milton-esperanza

Links from the Show:

• Esperanza performing at the White House in 2009
• Esperanza’s album Emily's D+Evolution
• Esperanza’s album Radio Music Society
• Fall In, song by Esperanza Spalding
• Judas, song by Esperanza Spalding

For more conversations like this – with guests ranging from Stephen Colbert to Björk to Ice Cube– go to https://www.thegreatcreators.com.

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