Apr 27, 2011
Kurt Elling: His own man, artistically speaking
Part of the reason that master musician Kurt Elling tends to hog the best-of magazine polls, Grammy dealings, and generally sweep up accolades as jazz' greatest living male vocalist has to do with what he is not Which is to say, unlike singers...
Apr 27, 2011
Kurt Elling nominated for the Jazz Journalists Association 2011 Male Singer of the Year
Excellent news! Once again Kurt has been nominated for Male Singer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association He received the JJA top honor in 2010, his sixth win since 2000 Other nominees in this category are Bobby McFerrin, Freddy...
Apr 27, 2011
KEQ in Santa Barbara: Going from strength to strength
When the best place to see jazz hosts the best jazz there is to see, it can feel like a celestial convergence, a planetary alignment that's as rare and beautiful as the northern lights Kurt Elling came to the Lobero last week with a program...
Apr 22, 2011
Kurt Elling at the Soiled Dove Underground, Denver
Perhaps it's ironic: jazz wants to be free, yet boundaries abound Nowhere has a boundary been more touchy or controversial than the line between jazz and rock Miles Davis blurred it, trounced it, trod upon it, spat on it And, in some circles,...
Apr 17, 2011
Kurt Elling keeps it bittersweet
With the poise of a World War II-era crooner, the patois of a Beat poet and the searching gaze of seminary student, jazz vocalist Kurt Elling isn't likely to be confused for Mick Jagger any time soon But for Don Was, who produced "The Gate,"...
Apr 16, 2011
Kurt Elling: a jazz singer with a literary, collaborative bent
Before he won last year's jazz vocal album Grammy Award for "Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman,†each of Elling's six previous albums had earned a nomination in that category Rather than feeling like...
Apr 13, 2011
Jazz Singer Kurt Elling Goes Pop Without Losing His Cool
Kurt Elling, the handsome and deeply talented singer, has taken his role as the generally acknowledged king of living jazz male vocalists proudly, and not lightly He might have, by now, dipped into breezier pop turf in search of lucre and mall...
Apr 07, 2011
Jazzed: Singer Kurt Elling wheels through the gate
In the personnel list on his latest album, The Gate (Concord Music), his credit reads: "Kurt Elling—Voice†It's an appropriate choice because Elling plays his voice the way an instrumentalist plays his ax His instrument is pretty...
Apr 06, 2011
Kurt Elling opens The Gate to some contemporary classics
It was through his father, a Kapellmeister at a local Lutheran church, that jazz maestro Kurt Elling was first introduced to music In growing up in Rockford, Illinois, Elling embraced a range of musical instruments including playing the violin,...
Apr 06, 2011
Elling continues mining new material for jazz
Kurt Elling is a jazz singer in the purest sense of the term Like a Billy Eckstine or Sarah Vaughan, the jazz characteristics of Elling's art come from his singing more than his song selection Like those two singers, Eckstine can improvise a...
Apr 05, 2011
In Praise of Kurt Elling
With the world's greatest jazz voice, a sense of effortless cool and a wealth of celebrity fans, improv-king Kurt Elling's addiction to touring has - in spite of the genre's low record sales - seen him play his way on to the list of all-time...
Mar 28, 2011
Kurt Elling on Youth, Critics
This month's cover story for JazzTimes, re: singer Kurt Elling, has been excerpted online There's way more insight behind the paywall, so if you like what you see, please go buy a copy, or swipe one from your neighbor Meanwhile, I thought I'd...