Esperanza Spalding Takes Toronto Jazz Festival By Storm

Monday July 09, 2012

From Lithium Magazine

Esperanza Spalding – Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto Jazz Festival – June 28, 2012
By Anthony Marcusa

It was standing room only under the crowded, hot tent at Nathan Philips Square for one of the most anticipated acts at this year’s Jazz Fest. A young and highly talented musician was introduced to much of the world following her 2011 Grammy win for Best New Artist, and has taken with her band to infuse jazz into the mainstream music sensibility.

The multi-instrumentalist and jazz singer Esperanza Spalding, all of 27-years-old, took the audience on a long, intimate, and fascinating journey in a storybook of a concert on steamy Toronto evening, for an exploration of the universal experiences of love and loss, friendship and hardship.

Spalding, in front of her band of 11 ‘bona fide badasses,’ as she so eloquently put it, began the evening by explain their goal, their concept of making jazz music that is accessible and can hold its own in the mainstream. Whether it can (and whether it should) is a different and lengthy discussion, but those that were there to see her performance experienced a stunning exercise in musical storytelling.

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Radio Song (clip)	1:01	Esperanza Spalding
Black Gold	5:17	Esperanza Spalding

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Watch what's on

*Radio Music Society Trailer
Black Gold
Esperanza Spalding at the Nobel Prize Ceremony
Esperanza Spalding at the Oscars

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