Blog
Nov 22, 2008
KE at the London Jazz Festival
Four bands at the London jazz festival this week celebrated long-past works by John Coltrane, singer Johnny Hartman, Sidney Bechet and Eric Dolphy - the latter's edgy lyricism explored in fine detail by a trimmed-down, sax-and-vibes version of...
Nov 20, 2008
KE in London: How important are lyrics in jazz?
Many jazz classics feature vocals, but the London Jazz festival programme reveals a form dominated by instrumentalists Do singers - or lyrics for that matter - mean much to jazzers And should they As a quick scan of the current London Jazz...
Nov 20, 2008
Kurt Elling is as smooth as ever
Everything Kurt Elling does has style Back by public demand, this dapper Chicago supercrooner unveiled a suite based on the recordings of John Coltrane and singer Johnny Hartman Recalling that one was a superstar and the other almost unknown,...
Oct 21, 2008
Singing in tongues: Kurt Elling scats his way into Rochester
Kurt Elling's Dedicated to You appearance last night at the Eastman Theatre, in a benefit for the Commencement Park, was as Jeff Spevak put it "jazz as good as it gets" The seven hundred souls who came to hear this Grammy-nominated singer were...
Oct 21, 2008
Elling soothes jazz fans with “Dedicated to You”
You look at Kurt Elling leaning coolly and casually against the piano, every inch the hip jazzman in his sharp suit and jet-black, swept-back hair, revealing the high forehead of a superior intellect You hear him scat singing or his voice...
Oct 10, 2008
Hartman and Coltrane probably smiled in heaven
The Sunday night finale show at the Monterey Jazz Festival was the most consistent for sustained pleasure Vocalist Kurt Elling, a past MJF artist-in-residence, was the perfect voice for the opening "Dedicated To You" salute to quintessential...
Sep 28, 2008
Dedicated to You at the Monterey Jazz Festival
At 7 pm sharp we're in the Arena for Kurt Elling's "Dedicated to You,รขโฌย a program of John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman songs and more Although this is the show he's bringing to the Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis in February as part of the...
Sep 15, 2008
Exceptional Tribute: Kurt Elling Sings Coltrane & Hartman
More than just supplying a new interpretation of a 45-year-old jazz classic, Kurt Elling has taken John Coltrane's 1963 songbook and applied to his voice the sort of inventiveness that the legendary saxophonist brought to his instrument at the...
Sep 12, 2008
John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman Are Channeled With Affection By Kurt Elling & Ernie Watts
It's always a treat when an artist sends you back into the library to pull out old vinyl or CDs that you have not thought about for awhile Kurt Elling, the jazz singer, and the saxophonist Ernie Watts are touring with a tribute to "John...
Jul 25, 2008
At the 92nd Street Y, Jazz for All
One evening in the early '60s, the bassist Charlie Haden was playing at the Village Vanguard as a member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet He was in the middle of a particularly intense solo, and he decided to close his eyes When he opened them at...
Jul 24, 2008
Bernstein as a Fount of Fusion
Elegance without ostentation: that would describe the overview of Leonard Bernstein songs that the pianist Bill Charlap and the singer Kurt Elling brought to Bernstein's theater music at the opening program of the 92nd Street Y's Jazz in July...
Jul 24, 2008
They’re Just Wild About Lenny
In a spirited salute to the man he aptly described as an "awesome musical force," West Orange piano dynamo Bill Charlap headed up "Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein" on Tuesday at the 92nd Street Y's Kaufmann Concert Hall Leading off...