Grammy Winner Esperanza Spalding Comes to Mayo Performing Arts Center, 4/26

Grammy-winning jazz and contemporary artist Esperanza Spalding performs at Mayo Performing Arts Center on Friday, April 26, 2013 at 8 pm. Tickets are $37-77.

It has not taken Esperanza Spalding long to emerge as one of the brightest lights in the musical world. Listeners familiar with her stunning 2008 debut, Esperanza, and her best-selling 2010 release Chamber Music Society, were well aware that the young bassist, vocalist and composer from Portland, Oregon was the real deal, with a unique and style-spanning presence, deeply rooted in jazz yet destined to make her mark far beyond the jazz realm. That judgment was confirmed on February 13, 2011, when Spalding became the first jazz musician to receive the GRAMMY Award for Best New Artist.

In March 2012, Spalding's latest release, Radio Music Society, became her most diverse, ambitious and masterful recital yet, eventually earning two Grammys this past February - for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist. Spalding was also nominated for Best Long Form Video for eleven of the twelve songs which are accompanied as conceptual music short films that further express Esperanza's inspiration and story behind each track. Shot in various locations including New York City; Barcelona, Spain; and Portland, Oregon; all videos are available to purchasers of Radio Music Society as a digital download or a DVD on the deluxe version.

Radio Music Society is a companion, rather than a sequel, to Spalding's previous disc, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart. "Originally I thought it would be fun to release a double album," she explains, "One disc with an intimate, subtle exploration of chamber works and a second one in which jazz musicians explore song forms and melodies that are formatted more along the lines of what we would categorize as "pop songs." Those are the two things that really interest me, and it intrigues me to think about different presentation approaches while writing each kind of song. On the pop song side, I think about listeners who aren't into jazz, but I also think about the people within my musical community who can interpret each idea best."