| NPR Shop | NPR Community | Login | Register

Share this page using one of the following services:

  • Stumble Upon
 

What is this?

 

Esperanza Spalding: Newport Jazz Festival 2009

Esperanza Spalding performs at Newport Jazz.
Enlarge Wiqan Ang

Esperanza Spalding performs at Newport Jazz.

Esperanza Spalding performs at Newport Jazz.
Wiqan Ang

Esperanza Spalding performs at Newport Jazz.

August 8, 2009It's hard not to admire what Esperanza Spalding has achieved in the last four years. Soon after she graduated from Boston's Berklee College of Music, she was hired as a double bass instructor. Two celebrated albums and several invitations to the White House later, her act has become one of the most sought-after in all of jazz - well prior to her 25th birthday this fall.

Since around the release of 2008's Esperanza, Spalding has been presenting a style that blends a limber bass pizzicato, a dynamic singing voice (both wordless and lyrical) and a taste for bright, sparkling, often Cuban- or Brazilian-influenced material. Even as a relatively young musician, reports of her live show almost universally note her natural stage presence and energy. At the Fort Adams main stage in Newport, she is planning to present songs from her newer, unrecorded repertoire.

Set List

"Jazz (Ain't Nothin But Soul)"

"City Of Roses"

"I Know You Knew"

"Sunlight"

"Wild Is The Wind"

"Mela"

"Crayola"

Share this page using one of the following services:

  • Stumble Upon
 

What is this?

 

Comments

Discussions for this story are now closed. Please see the Community FAQ for more information.

 
 

Feeds

PodcastRSS

  • Concerts
     
  • NPR Music Downloads
     
 
 

Produced by

WBGO broadcasts jazz, blues, and R&B from the world's jazz capital, the New York City/New Jersey Metro area. WBGO also produces NPR's JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater.