Oct 12, 2020
Jazz singer Kurt Elling moves back home to Chicago: ‘It was always a question of when was going to be right’
Twelve years ago, jazz singer Kurt Elling left Chicago for New York Three months ago, he returned The move, says Elling, was prompted not by the pandemic, which has devastated New York, but by a longstanding desire to move back to the...
Oct 11, 2020
Kurt Elling’s 25th Anniversary Virtual Tour: Steppin’ Out While Stayin’ In
If all was right with the world, jazz vocalist Kurt Elling would be celebrating the 25th anniversary of Close Your Eyes — his first album on the Blue Note label — before a packed house at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, the legendary club...
Oct 09, 2020
Kurt Elling Celebrates 25 Years in Jazz with “Virtual Tour”
Vocalist Kurt Elling rocketed to jazz stardom with the 1995 release of his debut album, Close Your Eyes, on Blue Note Records Twenty-five years later, Elling boasts a remarkable and accomplished career in jazz, and he celebrates it in October...
Aug 25, 2020
Kurt Elling – Live from the Green Mill, August 28-29, 2020
The Kurt Elling Quartet presents two unique livestreamed sets direct from Chicago's famed Green Mill Cocktail Lounge on Friday, August 29th & Saturday, August 30th, 2020 at 8:00 pm CDT (UTC-5) There will be no audience in...
Jul 05, 2020
Secrets Are The Best Stories review: A career high point for Kurt Elling
I've been under the spell of Elling since I first heard him – there's such rich calmness, such beautifully measured passion in his voice But it's also about the things he says and the way he goes about putting music to words; that's right...
May 20, 2020
Review: Kurt Elling and Danilo Pérez Prove ‘Secrets Are the Best Stories’
Kurt Elling's collaboration with pianist Danilo Pérez features impressionistic and daring playing and poetic lyrics, making it one of the highlights of a brilliant jazz vocal career On 2018's The Questions, vocalist Kurt Elling used a...
Apr 30, 2020
Review: Kurt Elling’s Secrets Are The Best Stories
As with most of Kurt Elling's albums, you can tell that he studied theology at one point, with his songs reflecting metaphysical questions such as "why are we here" and "how did we get all messed up" The beauty of Elling is that he presents...
Apr 22, 2020
Lighting the Beacon
In their first recorded collaboration, KURT ELLING and DANILO PÉREZ make music that reaches for a higher artistic and moral standard Picking at his weight-conscious lunch of Brussels sprouts, blistered shishito peppers, and wine at an...
Apr 18, 2020
Kurt Elling: Secrets Are the Best Stories review – oblique brilliance
Almost exactly two years ago, Kurt Elling brought out The Questions, an album that demanded much of the listener – the opposite, you might say, of easy listening The questions it asked were sociopolitical; he later summed them up as: "How did...
Apr 06, 2020
Review: Speaking To All of Us
Any album and/or concert Kurt Elling presents/creates is an adventure The vocalist, songwriter, and poet came out of Chicago 25 years ago singing jazz, cognizant of the music's history in that city and this country, melding poetry with music,...
Apr 03, 2020
Review: Kurt Elling featuring Danilo Pérez: Secrets are the Best Stories — a deep delve into the American psyche
The American singer Kurt Elling's bittersweet readings of the American songbook and literate vocalese have long set him apart, but more recently they have gained an overt political edge His 2018 album The Questions, a call to face one's fears...
Apr 03, 2020
Kurt Elling Talks New Album ‘Secrets Are The Best Stories’ & Collaborating With Pianist Danilo Pérez
Jazz vocalist Kurt Elling's craft goes way beyond singing A deep thinker inspired by the prose and the preaching of great poets and philosophers, past and present, he has carved out his own rightful place among them with his heartfelt lyrics...