Esperanza Spalding

In February 2011, the music world was shaken. At the Grammy Awards, something truly unexpected happened: jazz bassist, singer, and composer Esperanza Spalding won the award for Best New Artist. She triumphed over mainstream favorites such as Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence & the Machine, and Mumford & Sons.

The media called it a “shocking surprise,” a moment that made her the first jazz artist ever to win this prestigious award. But it wasn’t just a personal triumph — it was also a turning point that, for the first time in many years (and, unfortunately, for a long time to come), brought modern jazz back into the bright lights of popular culture and made the wider public ask: “Wait… who’s Esperanza?”

For Esperanza Spalding, the award also had a very tangible impact. Her then-current album Chamber Music Society instantly climbed the mainstream charts, making her one of the best-selling artists in contemporary jazz worldwide. Yet she was no newcomer to the scene — by then, she had already performed at the White House at the invitation of President Barack Obama, and at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Stockholm.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Esperanza Spalding was what people often call a child prodigy. Guided by her ear, she taught herself the basics of piano, guitar, oboe, and clarinet, and went furthest — in the field of classical music — on the violin. But it was during high school that she discovered the double bass, and it completely captured her heart. Within just a few months, she was performing in local clubs, blending pop, rock, hip-hop, and especially jazz. Her talent was so exceptional that shortly after graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, she became, at only twenty years old, one of the youngest instructors in the school’s history.

In her music, which she debuted with the 2006 album Junjo, Spalding combines jazz, fusion, neo-soul, R&B, bossa nova, and Latin jazz in her own distinctive way. Critics have especially praised her seamless connection between voice and instrument — a combination of such expressive power in both is inherently rare in today’s music world. This technical precision and her ability to move fluidly between genres have opened doors to collaborations with stars such as Prince, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, and Wayne Shorter.

After her commercial breakthrough — crowned by a Grammy win for Radio Music Society in 2012 — Spalding recorded several more albums that confirmed her position as the leading jazz–mainstream artist of her generation. By 2018, however, she began to move away from conventional jazz album formats toward more conceptual works. On 12 Little Spells, for example, she created a cycle of songs, each corresponding thematically to a different part of the human body. The experimental album earned her another Grammy Award. The same recognition followed with Songwrights Apothecary Lab (2021), a project developed in collaboration not only with musicians but also with experts in neurology, music therapy, psychology, and ethnomusicology. Conceived during the pandemic, the project was designed to help listeners cope with chaos, aggression, and loneliness.

Spalding’s most recent releases stand apart from the rest of her discography: in 2023 she released a live album with acclaimed pianist Fred Hersch, and in 2024 she fulfilled a lifelong dream — a joint album with her long-time idol, the Brazilian singer and multi-instrumentalist Milton Nascimento.

When Esperanza Spalding arrives in Brno, she will bring with her one of the most remarkable careers in modern jazz. As arguably the most influential jazz artist of her generation, her past achievements are extraordinary — and her future promises to be just as inspiring.