Esperanza Spalding (born October 18, 1984 in Portland, Oregon) is an American jazz bassist and singer. Spalding grew up in the King neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, a neighborhood she herself describes as "ghetto" and "pretty scary." Her mother, who raised her and her brother as a single parent, was an independent, industrious woman. Spalding is of African-American, Welsh and Spanish descent, and describes this as a diverse ethnic heritage that includes "Welsh, Hispanic, and Native American roots in addition to the unidentified roots from Africa." Her black roots come from her father: "My mom is Welsh, Hispanic, and Native American, and my father is black.