Esperanza Spalding's dress. Spalding, right, talks with John Hasse, curator of American Music at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Washington, Oct. 17, 2011 (AP)

Diaa Bekheet | Washington, DC – Grammy Award winning bassist Esperanza Spalding has donated the dress she wore for her performance at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for President Obama to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

The jazz artist’s donation was collected last Monday as part of the museum’s women in jazz initiative, which began this past April with Jazz Appreciation Month.

I tried to get her on the line to talk about it, but she’s busy on a tour.

Earlier this year, the acclaimed bassist-singer-composer Spalding made history at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards, becoming the first-ever jazz artist to win “Best New Artist” of the year, topping teen idol Justin Bieber, among others.

Spalding, already a young influential African American, blends jazz, folk and world music with classical chamber music traditions.

Spalding has three solo albums, including Chamber Music Society (2010), which remained at No. 1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums charts for ten consecutive weeks. She also collaborated with other musicians on 16 other albums.

Next February, she plans to release her fourth album, Radio Music Society.

Born in Portland, Oregon, the 26-year-old talented Spalding studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston. She graduated at the age of 20, and was immediately hired by the college, becoming one of the youngest professors in the institution’s history.

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