Mar 10, 2011
Kurt Elling, Tommy Smith and All That Jazz
Jazz legends Kurt Elling and Tommy Smith talk psalms, improvisation and why 'you've got to evil it up' "Man, if you gotta ask, you ain't never going to know," is the answer Louis Armstrong is said to have given when asked what jazz was Almost...
Mar 10, 2011
Jazz Inside: Kurt Elling
Jazz Inside: Can we start by talking about your latest recording, The Gate What does this recording mean for you What was the process like for you, and what elements of this recording are you most proud of Kurt Elling: I'm proud of it in its...
Mar 10, 2011
Kurt Elling: Master improviser
There's a lot more to vocal jazz improvisation than just making it up on the spot, as the master of the form, Kurt Elling, explains 'Sometimes people have this notion that improvisation is simply intuitive leaping into the unknown," muses Kurt...
Mar 09, 2011
First Nighter: Kurt Elling Fools Around With Time at Birdland
Whenever I hear Kurt Elling, I'm reminded of firsts -- for instance, the first time I ate caviar, the first time I drank Campari, the first time I eyed a Wassily Kandinski painting I'm talking here about acquired tastes but more than that, I'm...
Mar 08, 2011
Kurt Elling: Peerless
Peerless is not a word to throw about, but applied to Kurt Elling it feels thoroughly accurate Over the last few years, with the albums Nightmoves and Dedicated To You, he has moved from being a jazz singer to the jazz singer, to my ears and,...
Mar 07, 2011
The Gate: Another potential Grammy-winner from the jazz vocalist
The Gate sees Grammy-winning US vocalist Kurt Elling collaborating with rock producer Don Was and showing the same respect for Earth, Wind & Fire and Joe Jackson as he has previously for the poetry of Rumi and Rilke As you'd expect from Kurt...
Mar 05, 2011
Kurt Elling: the coolest scat in town
Is the Chicago-born musician the greatest living jazz singer He's back in Britain this month to bolster his case Outside it's minus 14C; inside Oslo's Jazzscene club "the cats are cookin' รขโฌย Not my words, but those of Kurt Elling as he...
Mar 05, 2011
Kurt Elling: Invitation to Epiphany
On his latest recording, The Gate (Concord Jazz), perennial DownBeat poll winner and recent Grammy Award winner Kurt Elling invites the listener on a journey That's standard patter for any artist intent on capturing, holding and increasing an...
Mar 03, 2011
Pivoting from patter to poetry
What the singer Kurt Elling says between songs, and what he writes in some of his lyrics, feels jokey and genial and on the edge of corny They're the secondhand niceties of an older jazz culture (Mr Elling was born in 1967 Some of his lingo and...
Mar 01, 2011
Kurt Elling explains vocalese
What is vocalese, anyway Here's how Kurt Elling describes it, as heard on Jamie Cullum's radio program for BBC Radio 2 (The link will be live through March 8, 2011 Jamie introduces Kurt at around 19:50) Vocalese is a subset of lyric writing...
Mar 01, 2011
The Gate: Careful balance, exciting, courageous style
Having finally won a Grammy award (after having been nominated on eight previous occasions) for Dedicated To You, anticipation is understandably high for Kurt Elling's new album Whilst Dedicated To You had a concentrated thematic and musical...
Feb 28, 2011
The Gate: Powerful, creative, daring
Not one to rest on his laurels, singer Kurt Elling's new release heads in an entirely different direction from Dedicated to You, his 2009 Grammy-winning tribute to the classic John Coltrane-Johnny Hartman album The Gate - produced by rock...