Esperanza Spalding: Newport Jazz 2009

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Esperanza Spalding performs at Newport Jazz. Wiqan Ang hide caption

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Wiqan Ang

Esperanza Spalding performs at Newport Jazz.

Wiqan Ang

It'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"