KEQ with Symphony in Australia

Kurt Elling and the Laurence Hobgood Trio opened new musical vistas during their recent Australian tour, playing two wonderful nights with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the iconic Sydney Opera House. The lush, swinging orchestral arrangements prompted one reviewer to call the evening “Ellingant!” Their April 17 performance is in the archives here.
On this trip, the KEQ also appeared with the Adelaide Symphony and then headlined the Melbourne Jazz Festival.

In March, their SE Asia tour included Indonesia’s Java Jazz Festival and performances in Singapore and the Philipines.

The New York Times says Kurt Elling is ‘the standout male jazz vocalist of our times.” His smooth four-octave baritone, searching intelligence and magnetic stage presence have earned him seven Grammy nominations, and he’s topped jazz bible Downbeat Magazine’s critics’ poll for male vocalist seven years running.

The only thing to match his astonishing vocal range is his emotional range: from quietly crooned love songs to high-spirited virtuoso displays, there’s nothing he can’t do and no subject he won’t tackle. For Elling, it’s about communication. He says, “I want people to be surprised, to be moved, to laugh, to remember something important they may have forgotten. I want them to have what they need.”