SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree
2x GRAMMY® Award-winner Kurt Elling is without question today’s preeminent male jazz vocalist, renowned worldwide for his unparalleled virtuosity and flair for trailblazing artistic exploration. From his stunning reinvention of timeless standards to his own captivating original songcraft, the Chicago-based musician has fused his dazzling talents across a panoply of musical approaches, emblazoning each with signature imagination, insight, and emotional intelligence.
Where many male jazz vocalists at this stage in a much vaunted career have tended to stick to the tried and true, Elling seems to be growing more ambitious and experimental with the passing of time, a tendency evidenced by his stunning new LP, SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree (Edition Records). The followup to 2021’s remarkable SuperBlue, the album once again sees Elling joining forces with producer/guitarist Charlie Hunter and multi-instrumentalist duo drummer Corey Fonville and bassist-keyboardist DJ Harrison (of Richmond, VA-based jazz-funk fusion quintet Butcher Brown) for a kaleidoscopic collection of new songs, surprising covers, and dynamic reinventions.
Edition Records | 2023
Track Listing
-
Black Crow
-
Hung from the heat / Drugged from the day Let night’s velvet glove / take you away
Pounding that beat / making your play
When push comes to shove / step right this wayFreeman Square / grab that groove and climb the square All the best folks meeting there / out of the glare
Vibe all night / let that high life treat you right light your inner Buddha sight / shiny and bright
Dig how the night’s an ocean teaming around you
Calling for you to be as free as your dreamy spirit wants you to be It’s not just black & white / it’s also golden-bright now
And it’s a green as ever was seen / a pyrotechnic kinda’ sheen
–A laughing clown / a fountain of eau-de-vie, now An iridescent spree now
And it’s crimson & yellow & orange-o / & violet
like Violet B was With her ever-lasting gob / stopping mid chew When she found a purple-berry pie / when the intro of a
very weird gum chew as done, over & throughLet’s be kings of the nighttime scene / two mannish cats who Bust out of the seams of what it means
Listen, sonny / we need no money
I’ve got a stock of lines within me / guaranteed to open what’s shut
What? I’m a cat who struts uncut / stalking the halls of every club you can conceive, imagine or dream up / I’ve got an Ali Baba syllable team-up / greases up a doorman’s id satisfaction / a califacaentMixing a tonic fix / to overcome any guest list diss twist Upon a late arrival / it’s club survival
And when the sun is bumping up / I can dig Sonny strutting into the light / you’re boogien’ & cooking with the grooviest women there.
Shutting down the night: it’s Sonny!
You might now want to electively put your butt in your chair To help the thinking that you’re drinking sink in.There’s nothing Willie can come through with that you cannot crew with within your own mindset and
Unless you’re Miles Davis there’s always some brother / Some mother smoother than you. So don’t you worry ‘bout a thing. You’ve got plenty of bells to ring
Bring that bad thing you bring & swing on down to Freeman Square -
Naughty Number Nine
-
Little Fairy Carpenter
-
Bounce It
-
Only The Lonely Woman
-
Right About Now
-
Hey, Baby!
You sure look good to me…
Over in another sliver of time / or universe
Baby, I’m your undercover lover and your private passion
In a different design / I knock you first
when true temptation overrides my mindAnd there’s an alternate reality line / of multiverse
Where I’m all granite – cut & classic like an Atlas statue
I am the diamond you grind / until it hurts / the mighty rock that realigns your spineBut not here / and not now
Even though it’s clear / that we’re compounding in a parallel sphereWith my super-positional view I comprehend / we’ve got a cosmic love connection in the fifth dimension
In a Heisenberg Hideout for two / our bodies blend / and we do everything we want to doJust not here / not here & not now
Baby, even though it’s clear / that we are smashing in a parallel sphereIf there’s a true-simultaneous fire / then there’s one sure bet
that just the smallest interaction starts a chain reaction
But there’s a price we’d pay for desire / so with regret
I’d better leave you with a quick goombyeSpoken :
Oh, yes, Ophelia. I am keen. “It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.” (Hamlet Act 3, Scene 2)Just not now / Not now and not here
Baby, though it’s clear / that we are smashing up a parallel sphereIf there’s a true-simultaneous fire / then there’s one sure bet
that just the smallest interaction starts a chain reaction But there’s a price we’d pay for desire / so with regret
I’d better leave you with a quick goombye -
The Afterlife
Personnel
Kurt Elling – Voice
Charlie Hunter – Hybrid Guitar
DJ Harrison – Keyboards
Corey Fonville – Drums
Huntertones Horns on “Naughty Number Nine”, “Bounce It” and “Not Here / Not Now”:
Jon Lampley – Trumpet
Dan White – Saxophone & Horn Arrangements
Chris Ott – Trombone
Elena Pinderhughes – Flute (on “Black Crow”)
Produced by Kurt Elling, Charlie Hunter, Corey Fonville & DJ Harrison
Executive Producer: Bryan Farina, Dave Stapleton
Recorded at Montrose Studios Richmond, VA February 2022 by Adrian Olsen & Curtis Fye
Vocals for ‘Not Here/Not Now, recorded at Transient Sound Studios in Chicago, IL by Vijay Tellis-Nayak
Mixed by Adrian Olsen at Montrose Studios
Mastered by Dave McNair at Dave McNair Mastering
Album artwork & Art Direction by Oli Bentley, Split
Photography by Angus McDonald