Jazz Festival’s Esperanza Spalding, wins the 2011 Best New Artist GRAMMY® Award

First jazz musician to ever win the best new artist award

Bassist, singer and composer Esperanza Spalding has won the GRAMMY^® Award for Best New Artist at the 53^rd Annual GRAMMY^® Awards on Sunday, 13 February 2011 in Los Angeles. Spalding is the first jazz musician to ever win the Best New Artist GRAMMY^® Award. Her inclusion in this mainstream category signified her considerable appeal to a broad audience. She was nominated along with Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence & the Machine, and Mumford & Sons.

“We are thrilled that Esperanza has agreed to perform at this year’s Jazz Festival and we are proud to present her as part of the star studded line-up. I trust that you will enjoy her phenomenal talent and GRAMMY^® Award winning performance,” says Festival Director Rashid Lombard.

Esperanza’s career highlights achieved within two years of her solo debut:

• In January 2011, Chamber Music Society, Spalding’s most recent release claimed the number one spot on the Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart
• The album entitled Esperanza, released in 2008, spent over 70 weeks on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart and was the most successful internationally selling debut during that year
• Two televised performances at the White House
• A Banana Republic ad campaign
• Features in Oprah Magazine and The New Yorker
• An invitation to perform at the 2009 Nobel Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway
• Numerous awards and high profile tour dates

Esperanza’s Spring Tour highlights

March 2011

• Shaftman Performance Hall – Roanoke, Virginia
• Weinberg Center – Frederick, Maryland
• Union County Arts Center – Rahway, New Jersey
• Finney Chapel – Oberlin, Ohio
• Music Hall – Detroit, Michigan
• Ritz Theatre – Jacksonville, Florida
• Cape Town International Jazz Festival – Cape Town, South Africa
• Cully Jazz Festival – Cully, Switzerland

April 2011

• Teatro Metropolitan – Catania, Italy
• Teatro Kursaal Santa Lucia – Bari, Italy
• Hangar 23 – Rouen, France
• Espace 1789 – Ouen, France
• Barbican Centre – London, England
• Palau de Congressos – Girona, Spain
• Auditori de Barcelona – Barcelona, Spain
• Jazzablanca Festival – Casablanca, Morocco

The Cape Town International Jazz Festival takes place on 25 and 26 March 2011. Details can be obtained at www.capetownjazzfest.com, or by calling the festival hotline on 021 422 5653. Tickets are available from Computicket and Shoprite Checkers stores.

Ends/