Sun 4/7 @ 7:30PM
Jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding won the 2011 Grammy for Best New Artist against a strong field, despite having the least commercial success of the nominees. She garnered still more attention when fans of one of the losing nominees, Justin Bieber, expressed their outrage in some fairly uncivil terms.
Spalding is likely to have a longer career than Bieber, since jazz audiences aren’t as fickle as preteen ones. And she’s built herself a solid base to grow on.
Attending Berklee College of Music in Boston (where she also taught for a while) brought her considerable talents to the attention of the right people. Soon she was recording, touring with artists like singer Patti Austin and saxophonist (and Cleveland native) Joe Lovano, and performing for President Obama at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo.
She also has an appealingly delicate and airy voice to complement her virtuostic bass playing, an element that expands her potential audience and gives her performances an appealing intimacy that has listeners leaning forward in their seats to catch every nuance. Nobody’s screaming when she performs.
She’s still touring behind her fourth album, last year’s Radio Music Society. She’ll be at PlayhouseSquare’s Palace Theatre. Tickets are $45.
http://www.esperanzaspalding.com