About Kurt
Kurt Elling, a two-time Grammy Award winner, is making his Broadway debut as “Hermes” in Hadestown. The Chicago-based musician is renowned for a signature, rich sound and an inventive, individualized body of work. With a singular style of contemporary Beat lyricism and vocalese-writing ingenuity, Elling has extended the parameters of vocal jazz and increased its vocabulary. The New York Times called Kurt Elling “the standout male jazz vocalist of our time.” The Guardian (UK) pronounced him “a kind of Sinatra with superpowers.”
Over twenty-five years of touring and recording, Elling has earned an array of top honors, including 17 Grammy nominations and a host of international awards. He’s spent two decades leading the DownBeat Critics and Readers polls and has won fifteen Jazz Journalists Association Awards for “Male Vocalist of the Year.”
Elling has performed in over 70 countries, headlining the world’s top festivals and venues. Collaborators within the jazz world’s elite include Branford Marsalis, Danilo Pérez, Fred Hersch, Charlie Hunter, and the Yellowjackets. Elling is in constant demand as a featured soloist with premier orchestras and big bands around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, the BBC Concert Symphony, WDR Big Band, and the Count Basie, Metropole, and Village Vanguard Orchestras.
Beyond the concert stage, Elling has written, directed and performed in multi-disciplinary, large-scale commissions for Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre and the City of Chicago. Elling enjoyed a world premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center of The Big Blind, a jazz musical he co-wrote with Grammy-nominated songwriter Phil Galdston.
Elling has appeared at the White House multiple times, including a performance with the National Symphony Orchestra for President Obama’s first State Dinner. He served six years as a Trustee and two years as National Vice Chairman of The Recording Academy. He currently serves as Co-Chairman of the Chicago Jazz Alliance and as the Audrey L. Weaver Jazz Advisor to the Ravinia Festival.
Now available for immediate download via Big Shoulders Records, SuperBlue: Guilty Pleasures, Vol. 2 (featuring Charlie Hunter).
Wildflowers, Vol. 3 – Elling’s new duo EP with acclaimed pianist and composer Christian Sands – will be released August 22, 2025. His album featuring Bob Mintzer and WDR Big Band, …in the Brass Palace, is due February 2026.
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Selected Awards
Grammy Awards:
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Dedicated To You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Secrets Are The Best Stories, featuring Danilo Pérez
Grammy Nominations:
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Wildflowers, Vol.1
- Best Alternative Jazz Album: SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: SuperBlue featuring Charlie Hunter
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Secrets Are The Best Stories, featuring Danilo Pérez
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: The Questions
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Upward Spiral, The Branford Marsalis Quartet with special guest Kurt Elling
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: 1619 Broadway – The Brill Building Project
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: The Gate
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Dedicated To You
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Nightmoves
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Man In The Air
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Flirting With Twilight
- Best Jazz Vocal Album: Live In Chicago
- Best Jazz Vocal Performance: This Time It’s Love
- Best Jazz Vocal Performance: The Messenger
- Best Jazz Vocal Performance: Close Your Eyes
- Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist: “Easy Living” from Flirting With Twilight
(Arrangement by Kurt Elling and Laurence Hobgood)
DownBeat:
- Critics Poll: Male Vocalist of the Year – 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
- Critics Poll: Talent Deserving Wider Recognition – 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
- Readers Poll: Male Vocalist of the Year – 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2020 (tie), 2021, 2022, 2024
JazzTimes:
- Extended Critics’ Poll: Male Vocalist of the Year – 2018
- Readers’ Poll: Male Vocalist of the Year – 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2018
- Readers’ Poll: Best New Release – 2012: 1619 Broadway – The Brill Building Project
Jazz Journalists Association:
- Male Singer of the Year – 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2018, 2019, 2020
JazzWeek:
- Record of the Year: The Gate – 2011
- Vocalist of the Year – 2006
Edison Jazz/World, The Netherlands:
- Jazz Vocal International: Kurt Elling featuring Danilo Perez Secrets Are The Best Stories – 2021
- Edison Jazz Oeuvreprijs (Lifetime Achievement Award) – 2014
- Jazz Vocal: Kurt Elling, The Gate – 2011
ECHO Jazz Prize, Germany:
- International Ensemble of the Year: Branford Marsalis Quartet with special guest Kurt Elling, Upward Spiral – 2017
- International Male Singer of the Year: Kurt Elling, The Gate – 2012
Jazz FM Awards:
- International Jazz Artist of the Year – 2013
Académie du Jazz de Paris:
- Prix du Jazz Vocal: The Questions – 2018
- Prix Billie Holiday: Man In The Air – 2003
- Prix Billie Holiday: The Messenger – 1997
Blue Note Milano:
- Award of the Year – 2013
Scottish Jazz Awards:
- International category – 2012
LOTOS Jazz Festival, Poland:
- Aniol Jazzowy/Jazz Angel Artistic Prize – 2018
Silesian Jazz Festival, Poland:
- Jazz Ambassador – 2012