Esperanza Spalding is clearly enjoying life. Why shouldn’t she? At just 25 years-old, she already has two White House East Room performances to her credit, and will be performing at this month’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. This, in addition to being the youngest musician given a professorship at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, two albums as a bandleader, a touring schedule that takes her to first class venues around the world, and being anointed the jazz world’s Next Big Thing.

Yes, it’s all enough to make some of us just a tad jealous. Fortunately, the gifted young bassist/vocalist/songwriter is deserving of all the accolades, as she proved on Saturday night at the 6th and I Synagogue, in a sold out concert that marked the start of the Washington Performing Arts Society‘s Sessions at 6th and I series. For Spalding’s first public performance in the District since the Kennedy Center‘s Women in Jazz Festival, the beautifully domed sanctuary of the historic building was a warm and intimate context for a spirited evening, which was at times swinging, at times funky, at times moving, but always uplifting and playful.

“Keep clapping,” she quipped, as Spalding took the stage, to which two lit menorahs served as a backdrop. Wearing a simple yet stylish gray skirt, with black boots and vest, her trademark hair tied back, she picked up her upright bass to play a simple line while introducing her bandmates and giving the audience its instructions. Informing us that the setlist would contain a good amount of not-yet-recorded material, and that the band was ready to “rock out,” she directed the diverse and receptive crowd to “smile, groove and have fun.” With such positive and palpable energy coming from such a delicately built source, compliance was not a problem.