Anyone that loves this song, anyone who would play it or sing it, or wants to sing it - we are all joined together. It reaches something within us that we all share in common, right?

I like her soft, less jaded by life interpretation of this song. Her effortless style is like a feather.

Absolutely gorgeous version of this - her vocals are silky and beautiful - heck of a job by the piano player, too

The most creative and compelling Lush Life I've ever heard, one of the most beautiful songs written in the 20th century. This version has it all.

I can't believe the comments! When did we all become so critical?! She sounds fantastic! Who are we to argue with the artists interpretation of the song?! She sang beautifully.

The piano-player is absolutely marvelous

She isn't just singing, she's acting. She really does sound like she's sitting in a bar somewhere with a glass in her hand (and it's not her first). And her voice is beautiful.

She is brilliant and so is her version of Lush Life. She is a truly talented lady.

Esperanza Spalding magnificient

It's a testament to the genius of Billy Strayhorn, that so many great vocalists have cover this work. There aren't many songs that have an intro that comprises nearly half of the song! GENIUS!!

We should not compare artistes. Listen to different versions of the same piece. We all have our preferences. This doesn't make one version inferior.

I think this is one of the most extraordinary jazz ballads ever written, melody, chords and lyrics. Kudos to Mr Strayhorn. And I just love this minimalist performance. Love the piano.

A superb interpretation. The pianist is very good too, and so is the bass which sounds like Espenaza.

Very beautiful version , great personnality Esperanza !!!

Got to be my favourite contemporary version because less is more when feeling and thoughts are being emphasized reflectively....so well suited to an intimate setting and so accessible...most versions are so over produced..junked up...really well done...

I enjoy all of her music! Don't compare any Artis! Just listen!

please everybody just enjoy the sheer genius of this magnificent creature

One of the most beautiful woman in the world singing the most beautiful ballad in the world.

One of the few songs where the verse is included in virtually every performance. If this was the only thing he ever wrote Billy Strayhorn would still be a genius. For extra cedit, look up what age he was when he wrote this!

Joe Williams' version is by far the best for my money. He brings out the true poetry written by this 17 year old boy.

This is GORGEOUS. Oh M Gee. Sheesh, she is awesome. This is my favorite standard and I seem to like it even more now.

I downloaded this song back in 2009, but it might have been recorded before then. I started listening to her in 2009 too, so I really didn't know the rarity of the availability of this song but it was definitely a good find

Here's Esperanza Spading, singing the classic, “Lush Life.” She brings a unique presence and sensitivity to this classic tune, so don't go comparing her to “Johnny Hartman, Sarah Vaughn, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, or Shirley Bassey, because, she's not of their era, and each artist bring's his/her own unique flavor to a tune. God, I do love, it, please listen to the entire video, and have some Cognac, Wine, or Champagne !!!

Great piano and arrangement ....and of course interpretation

This is wonderful! Very heart felt.

These comments are hilarious. Many folks read into this too much. It's a collection of sounds, not a dissertation. Does it make you happy, the aesthetic of the soundscape? If not, keep moving. To worry that there must be some 'authenticity' in an interpretation is like believing the piano should have never moved out of the orchestral setting. You have to have the ears to know that things can be put to more uses that are still pleasing, if not in the original form.

i think people are missing the context here. this is jazz, not classical music. this is about the performer. In jazz, the performer (Spalding in this case) expresses what they want in whatever way they want. It could be the meaning of the lyrics or whatever idea she wants to express. dont be claiming she cant sing these lyrics honestly, she's taking this as a tool to perform: either expressing an idea or just music to listen to. jazz isnt so much about the lyrics as it is about the improvisation and music as a whole experience.

Absolutely LOVE!! This is a fav song of mine! Even more so now!

incredible... thank you so much for sharing this

A beautiful version of a favorite. Ty. 💛🎶

OMG!!! How many songs she must have out there that I don't know about. Just when you think you have it all.

Que gran versión de lush life

Beautiful rendition!

All my love to Esperanza.......she's just brilliant.......❤❤❤💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

Beautiful!

I am told that this song is a real buster to perform. Well, this artist did not get the memo about how hard it is. Thank you for the ride your way. Your interpretation is a warm, smooth ride.

Don't know that... first time I heard it, and haven'y seen it anywhere else... I agree with you: this is a rare find... and a real gem.

Tony DeSare’s recording-studio version is one of the best. Great phrasing & tempo.

Beautifully done!

An incredibly sensitive, beautiful rendition of this Billy Strayhorn classic. (How could he possibly have had the wisdom or experience to have written this at 16?) I do wish she’d stayed loyal to Strayhorn’s lyric as written. It’s “With distingué traces” not “distant gay traces,” a common change.

👏👏 delicate and pure

I find every Song of her great.....

Beautiful 🌸✨

Great job Espi,❤👌

Remember Donna Summer singing this beautiful song from the album Donna Summer 1982. Produced by Quincy Jones

The bass is a little loud, but give her a break, she IS a bass player and this is her album. It's not so loud that it makes the track unlistenable. I like hearing the bass a little more sometimes (I'm a bass player though). As far as her vocal interpretation - that's exactly what it is. HER interpretation. The great thing about jazz is everyone can do it their way. I love Billy Holiday, but I also love this talented and sensual vocalist!

Good God in Heaven! She sounds like a lovely female version of Strayhorn.

I think I love her - seriously.......

Very nice. My favorite is Linda Ronstadt's. Best breath control I ever heard.

MARRY ME ESPERANZA !!!

Fantastic

So very much talent, in so young a lady.

Took two photos of Eszperanza at the 2011 Newport Jazz Fesatival.

Sammy Davis sang it beautifully .

Great music for a nap

wonderfull version ...but somebody commented also on the beautiful piano-playing-: - alas , az usually on Ytube, we cannot learn who did it...?!!

This is a rather subdued rendition. It certainly has its virtues.

With all due respect, I find it hard to accept all the judgements being made in regards to her life experience; for one, who are any of us to make statements about a person we do not know? Secondly, are we saying that songs with 'heavy' themes cannot be played by young musicians who have yet to experience everything life has to offer? I would suggest that those of you with complaints leave these judgement calls to the musician in question...

No one will duplicate stayhorns off key voice in Lush Life. The song was on a Donna Summers album long ago.

Everywhere there's negative people.

So very close to Billy Strayhorn's version...

bass players who sing seem very locked in. nice.

Beautiful! And very fine piano playing as well ... do you know who's the pianist?

Beryl Fishkinde sings the HECK-OLA out of this old chestnut! PERIOD!!!!!!!!! And I mean it!!! *****

It's all about interpretation, not experience. An artist can portray cant she?

Oh my god 💔💔💔

nancy wilson's version is the best version i've ever heard

does anyone know who is the piano player?

Piano player, Leo Genovese???

bellissima canzone ,ho l onore di aver conosciuto Tony Scott che la cantava

If you think Strayhorn wrote "distant gay traces", rather than "distingué traces" you are (albeit understandably) ill-informed. Listen to Sweetpea's" own versions of it. And read a reliable [not idiotic internet-based] text source. Spalding, whom I admire, should have known better. BTW: "gay", as a substitute, coded, apellation for homosexual, was in use in the 1930s-early'40s; but whether Strayhorn intended that meaning, or the more general post-Victorian sense, or whether he relished the ambiguity or double-entendre, is arguable.

좋아요. good~! ㅋㅋㅋ hahaha

who is the pianist player ?

Does anyone know -anything- about this recording? I really want to know who the pianist is... haven't found any info about this track yet DX

Another thing...Esperanza sings (voices are infinitely pitched) while she accompanies herself on an infinitely pitched instrument. You probably have no idea how difficult that is. She appears with Jimmy Heath siding on sax. Why not check out his credentials?

I reluctantly agree. She doesn't "own" this song. She probably hasn't been beaten up by life enough to be able to, since her star has risen so swiftly. Maybe that's a good thing.

great version, she is stunning.My fav is still Andy Bey fallowed by Johnny Hartmann

Wait! Isn't this the song the grandma on the movie Spanglish sang with her grandson?

The same history can be told in different ways and the same happens to this music.Any "contemporary performance" - Spalding or Gaga - bring us their audacity, courage, confidence: Lush Life is for few ones. This or another one could not be your most important or better music version, but it is a question of preference.

Just listen stop comparing .

Billy would have loved this.

This is not by John Coltrane. Billy Strayhorn wrote the piece. Get your facts right.

Oh my mistake,, sure you are right, John Coltrane played it anyhow and yea Billy Strayhorn wrote it. .......still like the way you sing it though your response was not warm!!! Thank you.

Who's May?

I so agree ! it's just not fair to compare renditions of songs from our Great American Song Book. I admit it, I don't know this woman. But what I DO know, is just how demanding this song is . Anyone willing to take it on, has my respect. While I'll admit, I'm partial to Natalie Cole's version, this is well done. This song is so full of terrible irony & sadness, anyone attempting it, has to be able to bring Billy Strayhorn's lyrics alive. Some do it better, that said, this is a noble effort.------MJL, 75 y/o

I saw Esperanza a couple of weeks ago, and she pretty much did a hatchet job on "Wild is the Wind." This is a forgivable artistic faux pas for a young woman who has a very bright future, and is clearly very talented. "Lush Life" is a song that is very hard to sing, and she does a credible job with it. One can't really fault her for not being Johnny Hartman: for me he set the bar so high with his version of this song that even getting close is tough. I hope ES continues to learn and grow as an artist, and I look forward to following her career, even her missteps. After all, you've got to take the bad with the good.

very nice version. A bit flat may be, compared to the one Rickie Lee Jones did on a 7 inches LP in the 80's. (it seems Ms Esperanza has been listening to it when I hear the very begining of this version)

Wow this is interesting! No shade this is okay but I love Queen Latifah's version thanks for sharing!

During a Johnny Carson interview, Jack Palance was asked about some bad reviews he received for a performance. After a short reflection he said to Johnny, "critics are like eunuchs in the palace. They see it done every night but can't do it themselves". I was a youngster then but that comment has weathered well. Hahaha wannabees

Does anyone know musicians' names here?

Mixed feelings about this performance. I love Esperanza ... vocal chops, big hair and a big bass to go with it - the complete package, and a lovely package she is. But she seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place trying to cover this number. Like most jazz musicians, Esperanza is a fluid, molten rock of lava ... a dynamic creature and creation of the moment, and can't help but pour her unique character into any pocket-of-a-tune she aims for. But the 'hard place' here is Billy Strayhorn's masterpiece of writing. Though he started writing this piece when he was only 16 years old, it took him years to polish and perfect. And perfect, indeed, it is. Admittedly from my limited experience as a music consumer, I would rank only Thelonious Monk's 'Round Midnight' as having a similarly iconic impact on our collective memory as a jazz ballad. So here is Esperanza's dilemma ... how straight and true to the song should she play it, or how much of her own individuality should she bring to the stage? I don't think you can have your cake and eat it too. As I said, Esperanza is the complete package and I love her style. But if I want to imagine someone channeling Billy Strayhorn, bringing him back to life though a straight-ahead rendition of this classic piece, I'd have to take a stroll down memory lane with Natalie Cole on this one. What the heck. I'll take 'em both, one on each arm. ;-)

Music accompanying? 🤔

It'smarvellous

It is true that Strayhorn was homosexual, but when he wrote that beautiful song, Lush life, in saying Gay, does not in any case give it the connotation that we currently give him, since Gay originally is synonymous with cheerful or fun, only since the 1970s Is synonymous with homosexual.

like her simple, subtly nuanced version.

the word gay ,used to mean happy, you young ones! LOL

there are too many jealous people on this site

Learn the lyric.

If that wig could talk!

enunciation.....missing.....