Deemed a prodigy as a teenager by contemporary jazz connoisseurs, Spalding in 2011 became the first jazz artist to win best new artist at the Grammys (over fellow nominees Drake and Justin Bieber), and the youngest faculty member ever at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Now 39, she's one of the most heralded jazz artists of her generation, an inspired booking for the Marcus Performing Arts Center's first jazz series concert of the season at Uihlein Hall. Establishing a contemplative environment with an introductory pause, Spalding and company extended the mood through the music, her radiant voice striking a solitary, soaring note — albeit just above a whisper — for a full 12 seconds at the start of set opener "Formwela 1." She subtly strummed her stand-up bass, and Doob gently slid a drumstick against the rim of a cymbal, as Spalding's repetitive elongated vocal notes formed into words, imploring us to "sink into the ground," her poetic phrasing painting a picture of air that had become "miraculously clear," of a calm rising from the "belly of your sway."
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