Kurt Elling Live at the Newport Jazz Festival 2012

This was Kurt and Laurence Hobgood’s second time at Newport. They first performed there in 2001.

Fans in the audience said, “Kurt killed it!” “People exploded to their feet, clapping and shouting for more.” “People were going crazy as they came off the stage!”

NPR Music, in partnership with WGBH (Boston) and WBGO (Newark), presented 16 hours of live video webcasting from the Festival. Many of those performances are now available as audio podcasts in the NPR Newport 2012 archive.

You can listen to Kurt’s entire concert (57:25) here.

The set list:

“Come Fly With Me”
“Dedicated To You” (from Kurt’s 2009 album, Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings Coltrane and Hartman)
“Samurai Cowboy” (from Kurt’s 2011 album, The Gate), beginning with Kurt trading 8s with drummer Kendrick Scott
“On Broadway” (from Kurt’s forthcoming album, 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project)
“The Waking” (from Kurt’s 2007 album, Nightmoves)
“Skylark”
“Golden Lady” (from Kurt’s 2011 album, The Gate)

Joining Kurt and his long-time collaborator, pianist Laurence Hobgood, the Kurt Elling Quintet now includes Clark Sommers on bass, Kendrick Scott on drums, and John McLean on guitar.

They performed the night before in Mt. Gretna, Pennsylvania and had to get up at 4:00 am to be on stage in at 12:20 pm in Newport, several states away. Kurt was in excellent voice, they all sounded terrific, and everyone had a fantastic time, on stage and off.

Great playing, gentlemen!