Blog
Sep 28, 2012
1619 Broadway: A beautifully crafted mix of bittersweet ballads
Kurt Elling celebrates the Brill building's pop-song heyday with a beautifully crafted, razor-edged mix of bittersweet ballads, reconfigured doo-wop and upgraded soul Elling has a lovely voice and the charm, passion and hip phrasing to...
Sep 27, 2012
1619 Broadway: Just listen to this! Amazing!
Kurt Elling's last album explored what I can only assume was his 1970s record collection, with interpretations of songs by Earth, Wind And Fire, Stevie Wonder, King Crimson and others from the rock and soul arena This time the Chicagoan is...
Sep 24, 2012
1619 Broadway: A Consistent Sense of Discovery
There was a time when reviving the delicate wonders of the Gershwins and Cole Porter represented the leading edge of vocal songcraft The only risk with such things anymore is smashing into someone else travelling the other way down the very...
Sep 24, 2012
1619 Broadway: One of Elling’s most interesting albums
Forward-thinking jazz vocalist Kurt Elling follows up his progressive 2011 covers album The Gate with his equally ambitious 2012 release, 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project Where on his last outing, Elling drew upon an array of musical...
Sep 23, 2012
1619 Broadway Brilliantly Explores Pop Classics
Though he has enjoyed greater acceptance since he burst upon the music world in 1995 with his first album on the Blue Note label titled, Close Your Eyes, Elling's uncompromising devotion to exploring deeply the rhythmic and harmonic...
Sep 16, 2012
Kurt Elling: His Lights are Bright on Broadway
It seems easy to predict that Kurt Elling's new Concord recording --1619 Broadway – The Brill Building Project -- will receive at least one Grammy nomination, as that has been the unprecedented fate of his previous nine releases...
Sep 15, 2012
1619 Broadway: Elling delivers
Grammy Award winning vocalist Kurt Elling will release his tenth recording as a leader titled, 1619 Broadway —The Brill Building Project (Concord Jazz), on Tuesday, September 25, 2012 Of his ten recordings several of them including Close...
Sep 14, 2012
1619 Broadway: A smart and daring album
As a self-described confrontational artist, Kurt Elling has never lacked confidence in tackling any musical venture Whether it is a re-imagining of the music of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman in Dedicated To You or embarking on an evocative...
Sep 09, 2012
1619 Broadway by Distinguished Jazz Singer Kurt Elling
Grammy-winning singer-lyricist Kurt Elling is getting ready to release his much-anticipated new album 1619 Broadway The title refers to the address of the 81-year-old Brill Building on 49th Street in the heart of midtown Manhattan, in New York...
Sep 03, 2012
Joy of Jazz, Johannesburg: A Review
"The scene is set for dreaming" A wonderful opening line to one of the most sung jazz standards in the jazz universe, and sung by one of its boldest vocalists It was mostly this song that had me hurrying to this year's Joy of Jazz as it...
Sep 01, 2012
1619 Broadway: The Kurt Elling release I have been waiting for
While I have always "liked" Kurt Elling since I first heard him sing with the Bob Mintzer Big Band, I have continued to look for and wait for that special release that would separate Elling from the pack 1619 Broadway - The Brill Building...
Aug 07, 2012
Kurt Elling on the Jazz Path and His Unique Style
Jazz Journal: What led him down the jazz path "I was always peripherally aware of some main ingredients like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and such, but it wasn't until I was in university that some friends were playing Herbie Hancock,...