Bassist, singer and songwriter Esperanza Spalding and her band will perform their song “Precious” from her latest release, Esperanza, on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight. This will mark Esperanza’s network television debut.

Esperanza is currently number 4 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart.

She began her journey when she moved east to Boston and earned a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. While there, all of the pieces seemed to fall into place for her. After three years of accelerated study, she not only earned a B.M., but also signed on as an instructor in 2005 at the age of 20. This appointment made her the youngest faculty member in the history of the college.

In 2005 she also received the prestigious Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship. Now, at the age of 23, Spalding has already launched an impressive career that is receiving critical acclaim across the board.

In a recent article, NPR’s “All Things Considered” assessed, “There are many gifted singers in jazz today, and no shortage of accomplished acoustic bass players. But few jazz artists can be both. Esperanza Spalding’s new album blends her soaring vocals and her deep bass lines.” (To listen to or read the entire NPR story, click here.)

The New York Times recently wrote, “Esperanza has got a lot: accomplished jazz improvisation, funk, scat singing, Brazilian vernacular rhythm and vocals in English, Portuguese and Spanish. At its center is a female bassist, singer and bandleader, one whose talent is beyond question.”

Billboard listed her among their “Faces to Watch” saying, “Whether exploding into vocalese or making her bass solo sound like a horn, she’s a spark plug who dances as she grooves through a funked-up and rocked-out repertoire.”

And the Boston Globe wrote, “The package of talent offered by Berklee College of Music graduate Esperanza Spalding portends great things for this young artist. A classically trained musician who became a sizzling bass player and singer/composer, Spalding covers jazz and Brazilian music on her debut album with verve and energy. Most impressively, Spalding does the improvisational singing of the high notes while her fingers pound out the rhythmic line on bass.”

Do not miss her performance tonight on the Late Show with David Letterman. For more information you can visit her online at esperanzaspalding.com.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 11:32 am and is filed under Smooth Jazz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.