I think Rose of California was sitting too close to the front to have good sound on this show. You never want to be so close to a stage this small where the live sound of the band is more prevalent than what's coming out of the speakers. I was about 9 rows back and had no problem with the sound as most of what I heard came out of the mix from the speakers where everything was balanced and not too much from the live sound of the band. We looked at the positioning of the first few rows when we arrived in relation to the speakers and decided they were too close and out of the firing line of the speakers and as a result, the engineer's mix. The show itself was magical, I'd see it again in a second if I could

Esperanza Spalding kicked off her tour with what can only be called an amazing show! I literally felt envious I wouldn’t be able to go to any of the other shows on this tour! Everytime I have seen one of her shows it has been a pleasure and I lhave left the show wondering what she would do next!! She didn’t disappoint. Do yourself a yourself a favor and see one her shows!

While I applaud Esperanza for being creative and innovative, the extravaganza felt like she was trying too hard. The music was interesting; I found I appreciated it more if I blocked out the garish visuals. The blue lights surrounding the band were an invasive eyesore. I did not like how Esperanza was disconnected from the band atop the absurd “swimming pool”. For me jazz is primarily an aural endeavour, one in which I like to focus on the music and the band. I hope Esperanza doesn’t go too far to appeal to popular music enthusiasts and leave jazz lovers behind.

Love Esperanza’s work but — what was this? I read about her intent in advance and tried to see what she was going for. I walked out. Couldn’t hear the lyrics, she was off key or intentionally cacophonous. About the only interesting thing was the visuals - when lights weren’t blinding. I walked out. Such a fine artist - hope she gets this one of her system.

We were in great seats in the first balcony and had the same terrible experience. We love Esperanza Spalding but Benaroya Hall acoustics, in conjunction with the sound system used, made this not just bad, but abusively so. We left after six pieces. The dancing was great and the show might have been too, IF only. We could not understand most of the spoken words, and essentially none of the sung words, due to the reverberating echos booming. Muddy sound is a useful description. This ought to have been avoided and might have been with a better set-up and thorough testing. I read other reviews from people up front (with others saying being close to the front was the problem)—we were in the balcony, in essentially the best seats in the house, and it was painfully bad acoustics for us too. This was our unfortunate first experience with Benaroya Hall (we just moved to the PNW from NOLA) and our first time seeing Esperanza Spalding live. We will try both again. It’s a beautiful venue and she is a great artist—both are worthy of better.

Went to hear a Jazz vocalist, but I was given avant-garde style music. Very disappointed, music too loud, band in one key, singer in another key, I couldn’t understand her lyrics and it was too cold in the building. I left during the break feeling stressed and overwhelmed.