'Blessed with talent, youth, training and outrageously good looks, Spalding is a young woman ready to make some noise, and is here to stay in the jazz world'. (All About Jazz)

There are - unfortunately - too few of them: women in jazz. Even rarer are women who play contrabass, write their own songs and, on top of all that, also sing. Esperanza Spalding however answers to this profile. If we can base our judgment upon her most recent, impressive album 'Esperanza' - a jazz album with fresh injection of pop, soul and world music - Esperanza Spalding could well become one of the greats. Furthermore, she switches effortlessly from English to Portuguese to Spanish (the language in which she sings the jazz standard 'Body And Soul').

She already worked with Joe Lovano and Pat Metheny at a young age and as influences she cites: contrabassists Ray Brown, Paul Chambers and Ron Carter. 'I didn't grow up on jazz, I derive as much satisfaction from Gnarls Barkley as John Coltrane' says Esperanza Spalding. Are you prepared for a discovery?

Line up:
Esperanza Spalding - contrabass, vocals
Leo Genovese - piano
Otis Brown - drums
Ricardo Vogt - percussion