Blog
Aug 07, 2015
Chicago Music Legends: Kurt Elling
Every baritone jazz singer has to stand comparison to Frank Sinatra, whose shadow looms over them so unremittingly, you want to take pity and just equip them all with miners' helmets And it's true that in terms of sheer tonal beauty,...
Aug 06, 2015
Kurt Elling: Passion World – Concord Jazz
Every single one of singer Kurt Elling's 10 previous albums has been nominated for a Grammy Award (he won in 2009) Now comes album #11, Passion World, five years in the making, is a world music potpourri of intriguing images, melodies,...
Aug 06, 2015
Kurt Elling: Passion World
Globe-trotting romance was stylish and sexy in the '50s when Frank Sinatra hit the friendly skies with Come Fly With Me Kurt Elling works in that tradition here, though both the times and the flight plan have changed He's gathered up...
Aug 06, 2015
DownBeat’s The Hot Box: Passion World
DownBeat critics' capsule reviews to accompany John McDonough's full review in DownBeat's August 2015 issue Kurt Elling, Passion World I was waiting for the wrong move that never came The Björk cover was a near miss, the...
Jul 27, 2015
Kurt Elling: Passion World
Kurt Elling's latest, his second with bassist Clark Sommers, drummer Kendrick Scott and guitarist John McLean, is also his first without pianist and arranger Laurence Hobgood (Keyboardist Gary Versace now completes the ace quintet)...
Jul 13, 2015
Review: Kurt Elling At Nice Jazz Festival
In an ideal world Kurt Elling would be known beyond the jazz world, in many ways he reminds me of Michael Bublé with his stage presence and commanding voice and his ability to reinvent to any song He has been named Male Singer of the...
Jul 12, 2015
Kurt Elling: Passion World
"I always knew, I'd fall for the girl next door/To stay at home with love would be my great reward" Kurt Elling's Passion World begins on a note of raw and wistful melancholy that runs — sometimes breathlessly, sometimes...
Jul 10, 2015
Kurt Elling: Passion World
Constantly on the road, jazz singer Kurt Elling has harvested passions from around the world and channeled them into his eleventh studio album, Passion World Elling takes us through Scotland, France, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, Cuba and Brazil,...
Jul 06, 2015
Kurt Elling’s magic carpet
The Malta Jazz Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary this summer and a plethora of renowned local and foreign artists are taking to the stage to make this year's edition one of the most memorable yet Among those artists is Kurt Elling,...
Jun 30, 2015
The Jazz Singer Off Road: Kurt Elling
Jazz singers have always traveled To make a living as a jazz singer has always meant hitting the road Bessie Smith did it and literally died on the road after an automobile accident Billie Holiday did it; even more so after her cabaret card was...
Jun 29, 2015
‘Passion World’ Review: Kurt Elling takes a trip around the world on his latest album
For too long, those who think seriously about jazz have tended to organize the music in terms of a historical sequence of stylistic "begats": New Orleans begat Hot Jazz, which begat swing, which begat bebop, which in turn begat the postmodern...
Jun 26, 2015
What I Love: Where Nice Evenings Are Recalled By Kurt Elling
The note-bending, soul-patch-sporting, Grammy-winning jazz singer Kurt Elling lives with his wife, Jennifer, and their daughter, Luiza, in a two-bedroom rental on the Upper West Side The window in the eat-in kitchen offers a view of glorious...