Jul 05, 2010
Kurt Elling at Ronnie Scott’s: Dazzling Hipness
In his on-stage banter, the Chicago singer Kurt Elling can sound as if he's swallowed an instruction manual on the kind of cheery badinage the Fast Show's jazz critic would have relished But the affectations only accentuate the impact of his...
Jul 01, 2010
KE Quintet a must-see at Ronnie Scott’s in London
A dazzling smorgasbord of scat, vocalese, poetry and stream of consciousness, Kurt Elling's first ever residency at Ronnie Scott's achieved immediate lift-off last night Singer Elling's quintet – long-time musical collaborator Laurence...
Jun 14, 2010
Kurt Elling: Jazz Journalists Association Male Singer of the Year!
The Jazz Journalists Association has named Kurt Elling its Male Singer of the Year! The fourteenth annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards ceremony was held June 14, 2010 at City Winery in New York This is Kurt's sixth JJA Jazz Award...
Jun 09, 2010
After blown save, Cubs turn to Kurt Elling in the seventh
The jazz community in Chicago has always gravitated toward the Cubs, for one main reason: if your lifestyle demands that you work at night, you need a team that plays in the daytime But this Friday, the jazz crowd has an extra incentive to...
May 27, 2010
Jazz vocalist Elling in tune with the masters
Jazz singer Kurt Elling doesn't have to prep too much for Sunday night's performance at Davies Symphony Hall, where he joins the Count Basie Orchestra They're revisiting the classic music Frank Sinatra made in the 1960s with the peerlessly...
Apr 24, 2010
Live Jazz: The Monterey Jazz Festival All-Stars at Royce Hall
When I last saw the Monterey Jazz Festival All-Stars, they were opening the 52nd MJF before a raucous Friday night crowd, the hour allotted to them not nearly enough to hold all their collective talents Seven months later, in the more...
Apr 22, 2010
The Road to Jazz Success
"Jazz musicians are improvisers, meaning that each jazz musician is thinking like a composer—only in real time, in collaboration with other musicians, in front of an audience,†says 2010 Grammy winner Kurt Elling '89 The goal each...
Mar 06, 2010
MJF All-Stars: Inspired Collaborations & Elling the Standout
At their best, jazz festivals gather a roster of international talent for a weekend of musicmaking, creating a crucible for collaborations between musicians who don't normally play together In this spirit, the Ferst Center for the Arts at...
Feb 25, 2010
Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour: All star collective
Within the very first minute of Tuesday night's show in the Carpenter Theater at CenterStage, Kurt Elling was scatting and, like a flash, they were off Wasting no time, like an exposition that just had to be told, the band's featured members...
Feb 22, 2010
An evening of inspired and eclectic sounds
Monterey Jazz Festival is the west coast younger sister of the Newport Jazz Festival Both were founded a few years apart from one another in the 1950s Great music has taken place at both festivals over the years Monterey's festival, however,...
Feb 20, 2010
Jazz Singer Kurt Elling Shines, Speaks Candidly
Grammy-nominated Jazz vocalist Kurt Elling and his quartet had just mesmerized a swollen crowd of 767 at the College of DuPage's McAninch Art Center In the lobby now, with his four year-old daughter coloring at a table merchandising his CDs, he...
Feb 17, 2010
Festival Hits the Right Note with Eclectic Jazz
Celebrity jazz concerts are often dreary affairs—museums of dusty music where real jazz goes to die Think of beige nights at Lincoln Center, the players wearing stiff suits, anxious to showcase their cool virtuosity while neglecting to...