Coming in concert: Esperanza Spalding evolves with 'D+Evolution'

June 19, 2015 at 7:40PM
Esperanza Spalding performs at Le Poisson Rouge in New York, May 15, 2015. The bassist and singer-songwriter, acclaimed for her breadth of style, is now four years past her breakout win for best new artist at the Grammy Awards and interested in new ways of working with her talent and her image. (Sam Hodgson/The New York Times) ORG XMIT: XNYT22
Esperanza Spalding performed at Le Poisson Rouge in New York on May 15. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

ESPERANZA SPALDING

Friday: Since winning the best new artist Grammy in 2011, beating out Justin Bieber and becoming the first jazz performer to receive the award, Spalding has done what young artists should do: move on, evolve and change things up. Bassist, singer-songwriter, composer, producer, bandleader and sideman, she's a modern jazz musician who also plays funk, hip-hop, pop, blues, Brazilian and Afro-Cuban styles. For her latest project, "Emily's D+Evolution," a follow-up to 2010's "Chamber Music Society" and 2012's "Radio Music Society," she's not touring behind an album but ahead of one, trying things out as she goes. (Emily is her middle name, the one she went by as a child when she wore braids and glasses, her surprising no-fro look for this tour.) Inspired by a jumble of influences — the documentary "Beware of Mr. Baker" about the Cream and Blind Faith drummer Ginger Baker; surrealist poetry; experimental theater, and a dream she had on the day before her birthday — it's part concert, part high-concept performance piece and all about freedom. (9 p.m. June 26. $29.95-$59.50. Mill City Nights, 111 N. 5th St., Mpls. 612-333-3422, www.millcitynights.com.)

PAMELA ESPELAND

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