Jazz artist Esperanza Spalding has lived many lives in her 31 years.
She was a prodigy who could mimic her mother’s piano playing as a toddler, taught herself violin, clarinet and oboe by the time she reached her teen years, eventually gravitating to cello and bass — both acoustic and electric — and beginning to sing and compose while playing indie rock in clubs in her native Portland, Ore.
As a scholarship student at the Berklee College of Music, she had her talent validated when guitar superstar Pat Metheny told her she had “that X factor.” Upon graduating at age 20, the contemporary-music school immediately hired her as an instructor.
After striking out on her own as a recording artist, she fulfilled Metheny’s prophecy with her 2008 album “Esperanza,” which spent 70 weeks on Billboard’s contemporary jazz chart.
Esperanza Spalding Presents:
Emily’s D+Evolution
Where: The Republik, 1349 Kapiolani Blvd.
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Cost: $35
Info: flavorus.com or 855-235-2867
With Spalding’s next album, 2011’s “Chamber Music Society” — she had played in the Chamber Music Society of Oregon as a youngster — she became a bona fide star, becoming the first jazz musician ever to win the Grammy for Best New Artist.
The album, which showcased her distinctively elastic voice singing in English, Spanish and Portuguese as well as her bass playing, arranging and collaborative skills, was praised for its “musical diversity, stylistic panache, humor and soul” by allmusic.com.
The Grammy win cast her as the villain to outraged Justin Bieber fans, who was also in contention for Best New Artist. Haters hacked her Wikipedia page, but Spalding followed up with yet another Grammy-winning album, “Radio Music Society,” in 2013. She’s also received two more Grammys for arrangements of individual songs (while the Biebs managed to get just his first Grammy this year).
She’s also become a personal favorite of President Barack Obama. She performed at the 2009 ceremony where he received his Nobel Peace Prize and more recently at a celebration of International Jazz Day in April at the White House.
Spalding has now taken on yet another persona, performing as Emily (her middle name, and the name she went by as a child). In March she released the album “Emily’s D+Evolution,” which she’ll be presenting at The Republik on Wednesday.
Spalding, who in her early days often posed as different characters, told the website Metro.us that the project stemmed from a dream “where I heard 10 sketches, and I saw this character and I realized it was me,” she said. “This sounds really freaky-deaky, but it’s true — and it scared the bejesus out of me, so I guess that means that’s what I’m supposed to do.
“Because usually when something seems freaky and impossible, that’s when it gets really good, so that’s what we’re doing.”
Further definition to the Emily character came from a documentary about Ginger Baker, the insanely talented (and possibly insane) drummer of the rock trio Cream, Spalding said in a video for thejazzline.com.
“It was like, click! The magnets connected. Emily plays with a power trio,” Spalding said.
Musically, the new album is, in a word, adventurous.
The opening tune, “Hot Lava,” rocks with a driving bass line and a fusion of raw guitar riffs, while the lyrics are metaphorically raunchy.
“Unconditional Love” is dreamier, contrasting a heavy bass with her sweet R&B-inflected vocals. “One” has inspired Joni Mitchell comparisons, but there’s also a dynamic quality that makes it reminiscent of some of the classic James Bond title tracks, like “Goldfinger” or “Thunderball.”
In concert, Spalding presents her alter ego in a series of visually arresting episodes. In videos and artwork, Emily appears in fantastical costumes and settings, wearing big, colorful glasses reminiscent of both Elton and Urkel.
“We are putting on a play, sort of, influenced a lot by surrealist poets, the experimental theater movement in New York,” Spalding said in the video for thejazzline.com. “With the Emily project, I’m just exploring that more. How can we create that other world? Feel what you want to feel. Move how you want to move. Join us.
“Come as a character that you’ve always wanted to be. We’re allowed to pretend to be ourselves.”