Esperanza Spalding will play as part of two lineups Sunday at the JVC Jazz Festival in Newport.

Prodigy? Yeah, maybe.

Esperanza Spalding was studying music in college in her native Portland, Ore., at age 16. She was in Boston at the Berklee College of Music at 17 and starting teaching there at 20. Now, at 23, she’s taking some time off from teaching: She’s already logged serious touring miles with a diverse list of stars such as Pat Metheny, Patti Austin, M. Ward and more, as well as a regular gig with saxophonist Joe Lovano, and now she’s got even more touring to do in support of her American solo debut disc, for which she sang, played bass, wrote most of the songs and produced it.

“I’m always gone,” she says on the phone during a rare stop at home in New Jersey. “I feel like I never have enough time to do my own stuff or practice or anything. … It’s kind of like a full-time engagement, doing this” solo touring.

Not that she’s complaining, and that’s a good thing, because a listen to Esperanza suggests that her situation isn’t going to change soon. Spalding’s nimble runs on the upright bass and acoustic bass guitar are equally at home in jazz, Latin jazz, pop and soul settings. Singing in English, Spanish and Portuguese, she tackles mostly originals and a few covers in a voice, and with a sense of melody, that give the impression of someone at least twice her age.

“Cuerpo y Alma” (a Spanish-language version of “Body and Soul”) includes scat singing and a bass section that may not strictly qualify as a solo (actually, the piano is taking a solo at the time), but is still stunning. Playful pop-jazz songs such as “I Know You Know” and “She Got to You” mix in bits of a funky ethos, and either one would be a radio hit in a better world. The tour de force, however, has to be “Love in Time,” with a thrilling bass solo followed by wailing vocals that’ll pin the listener to their chair.

Spalding made a disc for a Spanish label in 2006, but Esperanza is her first wide American release. She calls the making of this record “a little bit stressful, because it all happened so fast,” and she’s not kidding: She signed a recording contract with Heads Up International (part of the Concord Label Group) in November of last year, began recording in December and the record was out this May.

She played at Newport last year, backing New Orleans saxophonist Donald Harrison in a group that also included the great young trumpeter Christian Scott (who will play with his own group at Newport this weekend). “It was awesome, of course,” she says of the experience. “It’s so much fun to play with Donald, and it’s an honor to be a part of that festival.”

If you saw Spalding backing Harrison’s New Orleans-funk acoustic jams last year in Newport, Esperanza might come as a bit of a surprise. But she says that the mix of influences has always been part of her musical deal. Some of her earliest musical experience came in the indie-rock group Noise for Pretend, with whom she played and sang as a teenager in Portland.

“I never specifically wanted to do jazz. But I always wanted to write. When I started to play bass, I got an opportunity to play with more of a pop band, and I really enjoyed writing for them. And when I got more used to singing in the jazz vernacular, I would write more for jazz ensembles or instrumental music. But I really don’t have a preference — whatever sounds good to me, whatever idiom that I know enough about or understand the sound enough to make it work, I’m into.”

And she’s already beginning to put together ideas for her next record, and is looking for “more genres to mix in. I’m just going. … I’m always like that. I can’t do any one thing for very long.”

Spalding played many instruments as a child, but started playing the upright bass at 15. She’s one of the few upright bass players who also sings lead, and while it takes a fair amount of coordination to pull it off, she doesn’t consider it a big deal.

“Because it looks so different, I think people assume it’s an abstract phenomenon, but it’s not. I think it’s similar to what a piano player has to do, when they’re playing independently with their left and right hands. When I play the piano, I feel the same parts of my brain going ‘AAAAAH!,’ you know? So I’m trying to fit two parts together. I’m doing a lot of exercises to gain independence with my hands and my voice. … You find where it’s relating, and I think of it all as counterpoint.”

She calls Lovano “one of my main mentors,” and says that she continues to learn a lot from him. “Musically, how to conduct a band, compositionally, how he handles himself on the road with his fans and his band — he’s just a master, and he’s a great guy; he’s found a really neat balance.”

Spalding has found herself in some pretty fast musical company at a young age, and says that she mixes a fearless attitude with a willingness to learn lessons.

“I’m always ready to do whatever. It’s just a question of whether what I’m delivering is deserving enough or potent enough to make the most of this opportunity. … I always feel like that, because I’ve spent time with masters, and I know what they’re like, and I know what I’m like, and I think, ‘I have so far to go!’ so sometimes I’m just, ‘Oh my God, why am I here?’ …

“It’s so inspiring to work hard. It’s like what Frederick Douglass said: ‘You may not get everything you earn, but you have to earn everything you get.’ I may get these opportunities and feel like ‘I don’t deserve this,’ but I’m still going to work really hard to make sure that I can meet it.”

Esperanza Spalding will play twice Sunday: with her own band on the Waterside Stage and with George Wein and the Newport All-Stars on the Fort Stage.

rmassimo@projo.com