Esperanza Spalding live in concert.
ON TOUR

Esperanza Spalding

22
critic concert reviews
jazz

How Good Are They LIVE?

Live Rating  

78
%
Based on 
22
critic concert
reviews
Last 12 Months Rating  
%
Based on 
critic concert
reviews

Real Live Certified  

Real Live Certified badge for artists with consistent, high quality live performances and broad critical acclaim.

Critic Consensus

Based on 22 concert reviews, the critic consensus is that Esperanza Spalding is rated as an impressive live performer, with many notable strengths. Esperanza Spalding concert reviews describe live shows and performances as masterful, eclectic, evocative, graceful, and theatrical.

ON TOUR

Benaroya Hall, Seattle, United States (August 4);

Latest Release

Songwriters Apothecary Lab (June 28, 2022)

Artist Info

Genre
jazz
Origin
Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, United States (10/18/1984) (10/18/1984)
Bio
Born in 1984, bassist, singer and composer Esperanza Spalding began playing in small jazz and blues venues around her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Soon after picking up the acoustic bass at the late age of 14, she helped form Noise For Pretend, an eclectic band fusing jazz and pop for which she sang and played bass (often simultaneously).
Has Performed With

Critic Concert Reviews

Nippertown (USA)

February 8, 2023
%
Esperanza Spalding is an artist that refuses to be pigeonholed.

Parklife DC (USA)

December 6, 2018
%
Esperanza Spalding put a spell on DC's Lincoln Theatre recently — 12 spells to be exact. The four-time Grammy award-winning bassist and vocalist spent an evening weaving incantations from her recently released album, 12 Little Spells.

Brisbane Times (Australia)

June 5, 2016
60
%
Esperanza Spalding: Girlish Emily shaded by a pupation and a fly

The Music (Australia)

June 4, 2016
%
Spalding takes the stage in a black and white tent, her head poking out the top like a poorly judged Barbie cake in an afro to kick off an evening of riffed on selections from D+Evolution.

The New York Times (USA)

March 2, 2016
%
Esperanza Spalding Emily’s D+Evolution (Concord) Whimsy gets weaponized on Esperanza Spalding’s new album, Emily’s D+Evolution.

The Guardian (UK)

November 3, 2015
60
%
Combining pop songs with poetry, narrative and performance art, Spalding’s gig is a work in progress but she is always watchable

Concert Livewire (USA)

August 16, 2015
%
There was a lot of social media banter when she beat teen idol, Justin Bieber, at the Grammys in 2011 as the best new artist of the year.

Past critic reviews published in

QRO Magazine, musicOMH (UK), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (USA), Relix (USA), Westword (USA) and more

Image Credit

Jose Nieto [CC BY 2.0] via Wikimedia Commons