Blog
Nov 19, 2006
DownBeat Readers Poll Male Vocalist of the Year
In the midst of what was a nonstop weekend for him at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Kurt Elling only had a few spare minutes But this was long enough for him to talk about his current musical life while he dove into a huge plate of greasy BBQ,...
Nov 15, 2006
The Gospel of Kurt Elling
I hadn't even wanted to go It was March 17 – St Patrick's Day, 2006 Kurt Elling, a jazz singer, was playing at the Strathmore Center, a resplendent new $100-million concert hall near my house in Maryland I didn't know much about Elling...
Oct 20, 2006
Sholto Byrnes: Talking Jazz
This column has not always been noted for its friendliness towards jazz vocalists That, I would contend, is only because many who call themselves such have not proved themselves worthy to bear the mantle of the jazz tradition But praise will be...
Sep 01, 2006
Kurt Elling: Being Fully in the Moment
Watching and listening to Kurt Elling on the "Jazz Singers†session in PBS's "Legends of Jazz†I remembered what Cecil Taylor said of his life's vocation: "This music is about magic and capturing spirits†And Duke Ellington...
Jun 03, 2006
Elling, orchestra put on a dazzling Jazz Series show
Charleston-based touring drummer Quentin Baxter talks often about striving for "intensity, not volume" That theme was much in evidence Friday at Gaillard Auditorium when vocalist Kurt Elling and the 15-piece Chicago Jazz Orchestra romped...
Apr 04, 2006
Kurt Elling: Bringing People New Information
It's been three years since the last Kurt Elling album was released, the masterful Man in the Air So when he called me two weeks ago from a hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania, the first thing I asked was when do we get to hear a new one He...
Apr 02, 2005
Kurt Elling: On the Wings of Song and Poetry, as City Lights Flicker
The singer Kurt Elling projects in strong, concentrated gusts: a half-second of inflation and then the word itself, drawn out and oversized He can sound like a horn, and works in long, free-ranging solos, sometimes making that process literal...
Mar 05, 2005
Whitman’s ‘Leaves’ Turned Into Music
When pianist Fred Hersch set out to compose an extended piece inspired by Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass," there was one specific voice he had in mind Though they had never worked together before, Hersch conceived of his most ambitious project...
Mar 01, 2005
Leaves of Grass: The Fred Hersch Ensemble
For Leaves of Grass, pianist/composer Fred Hersch has set the poetry of Walt Whitman to music Without a doubt that this is a very great record Hersch's compositions, which showcase the singing of Kurt Elling (mostly) and Kate McGarry, are jazz,...
Nov 01, 2004
Elling treats Da Camera audience to inventive vocals
Kurt Elling is a jazz singer whose approach is too cerebral to be constrained by that label Indeed, his inventive vocals - with traces of Jon Hendricks' scats and Al Jarreau's tone - challenge listeners to pay attention lest they fall behind as...
Aug 31, 2004
New format, Elling and Freeman get 7-night fest off to a hot start
Bigger, brawnier and brainier than it has been in more than a decade, the Chicago Jazz Festival roared back into action on Monday-launching a seven-night run not seen since the 1980s Though shrinking coffers forced the city to scale back the...
Jun 05, 2004
Bland new world:Watered-down jazz singers are being promoted as the real thing
They're young, glamorous, beautiful, talented, evocatively dressed, sumptuously photographed -- and, oh, so boring to hear Packaged to appeal more to the eye than to the ear, the new jazz singers -- or at least the vocalists being marketed as...