Kurt Elling on the Grammys, confidence, the jazz lifestyle, his next album, and more

Kurt Elling, courtesy of the artist

 I’ve seen Kurt Elling perform countless times—seriously, so often I’ve lost track of the number—but I’d never interviewed him until Thursday, Feb. 16, two days before his performance at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.

On Saturday, Feb. 11, he was featured on public radio’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” (in the segment called “Not My Job”). On Sunday he attended the Grammys. On Tuesday, Valentine’s Day, he performed a program called “Passion World” at Chicago’s Symphony Center. (I saw the first performance of “Passion World” in May 2010 in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center.)

I reached him by phone at his home in New York City, where he was spending a few days before coming to Minneapolis. A condensed version of this interview appears on MinnPost.

PLE: I understand you did “Passion World” in Chicago on Tuesday. I was at the first performance in New York, with Richard Galliano.

Kurt Elling: We did kind of an updated version. We added a couple of compositions, and we were fortunate to have Anat Cohen and Regina Carter with us this time.

Was this the first time you performed with them?

No, Regina and I toured together with the Monterey Festival All-Stars, and Anat and I were on the same Jazz Cruise just now. She sat in with my band a couple of times there. She’s just a joy. Both of them are such lovely people, and such great musicians. [The Chicago concert] was a real pleasure for everybody. I think it was an ideal situation for Valentine’s Day.

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 and poetry that is unique to the jazz idiom. Vocalese is created in this way: One falls in love with an instrumental recording--a saxophone solo, piano solo, or bass solo. One transcribes the solo. One writes a lyric to fit the contours of that which was improvised for the recording. Then one learns to sing that melody as the new melody for the composition. So, if Bird played [Kurt scats a few bars from "Billie's Bounce"] and then Eddie Jefferson wrote: 

I've overlooked so many things/Through the years, through my tears, through my fears/And then I went and opened my eyes... 

And it proceeds like that. And it's a joy, and it's very difficult, and few have attempted it, Jon Hendricks being the greatest of jazz lyricists, Eddie Jefferson, Annie Ross, King Pleasure. A few people after then have done some very, very high quality work, and it's one of the things that I like to keep alive. It could only have happened with the advent of recorded sound, because before that time, if somebody improvised something, it was just lost to the wind, and it was gone. So it's an exciting field because there's a lot of open terrain.

Keep listening to hear performances of "Nature Boy," "Samurai Cowboy," and "Moonlight Serenade," recorded live in the BBC's Maida Vale studios. These live recordings are special.  As much as I enjoy Elling's many recordings, including the very polished new release The Gate, he is most magical, most convincing, and warmest live.

Concert review: Kurt Elling at the Dakota, first night, both sets

Kurt Elling

Who: Kurt Elling, voice;  Laurence Hobgood, piano; Harish Raghavan, bass; Ulysses Owens Jr., drums; John McLean, guitar • Where: Dakota • When: Wednesday, February 9, 2011

A blow-by-blow for Kurt Elling fans and others who plan to catch the band on their latest tour. (By “others,” I mean those who haven’t yet seen Elling live, because once you do, you’re a fan.) This tour is mostly about The Gate, the new CD produced by Don Was and the successor to Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman, for which Elling won his long-overdue first Grammy in 2010. But it’s not just about The Gate. Here are the setlists and remarks along the way.

FIRST SET

“Moonlight Serenade” (from Flirting with Twilight, 2001). Elling wrote the lyrics to the version of the Glenn Miller/Mitchell Parish song recorded by Charlie Haden and Quartet West on Haunted Heart (1991). A romantic showcase for his voice, which only gets better. Everyone in the house feels all warm and cozy at the end, when suddenly he turns around, snaps his fingers, and the band moves immediately into…

Live jazz in Minneapolis-St. Paul: This week's picks

Are you in your car or near a radio at 8:30 CST on Friday mornings? Tune to KBEM to hear me and Mr. Jones—Jazz 88 "Morning Show" host Ed Jones—talk about these events and more. 88.5 FM in the Twin Cities, streaming live on the Web.

This is an exceptional weekend for jazz in the Twin Cities. Next week, the great vocalist Kurt Elling comes to town for two nights. Later this month, Branford Marsalis and Terence Blanchard bring their quintets to Orchestra Hall. Meanwhile, I’m keeping a gimlet eye on a local venue that has presented live jazz regularly but is now “making changes.” You'll know more when I do.

Friday: John Scofield at the Dakota

When asked to name the three greatest living jazz guitarists, most jazz fans will say Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, and John Scofield. Diverse, eclectic, and innovative, Scofield’s music ranges from post-bop to R&B and funk-edged jazz. His resume includes stints and recordings with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Charles Mingus, Gary Burton, Miles Davis, Charlie Haden, Brad Mehldau, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, and many more. In January, he toured with Joe Lovano; he brings his own trio to the Dakota for one night only. 

7 and 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4, Dakota ($40/$30). 612-332-5299.

CD review: Kurt Elling's "The Gate": From King Crimson to amen

Kurt Elling by Timothy Saccenti

The successor to a Grammy winner is eagerly awaited, then examined under a high-powered microscope. Will it be as good? Will it be better? Will it be a letdown? 

Fans of jazz singer Kurt Elling who have waited a year and a half for the follow-up to 2009’s Dedicated to You, his Grammy-winning tribute to/reinterpretation of the John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman classic, will be thrilled by The Gate. Listeners new to Elling (and to pianist/arranger Laurence Hobgood, Elling’s longtime collaborator) will want to catch up on earlier albums. 

Among male jazz singers today, right now, Elling stands alone. He simply has the most exceptional voice out there. Famously spanning four octaves, resonant and warm, it mostly lives in baritone land but can rise to a dazzling falsetto. He’s a master of dynamics and phrasing, texture and tone, and his swing seems effortless, like breathing. One moment he can woo you with a tender ballad, the next astonish you with rapid-fire, acrobatic scatting. He’s a romantic and a hipster, sincere and playful, authentically charismatic. He writes his own vocalese lyrics, many of which are pure poetry. 

It seems there’s nothing he can’t do, and if he’s increasingly being mentioned in the same breath as Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme and Louis Armstrong, it’s because he deserves it.

On the road again: Kurt Elling and Laurence Hobgood in Fargo: Concert review

Last week (Saturday, October 10): Kurt in St. Peter, MN. This week (Saturday, October 17): Kurt in Fargo, ND.

I have friends who follow U2 from city to city and believe me, jazz is cheaper.

This was a totally different concert from the one at Gustavus Adolphus College. From St. Peter to Fargo, there was not one crossover tune. Two possible reasons: This time, Kurt and Laurence performed with the Jazz Arts Big Band instead of their own quartet. And they don't repeat themselves.

How often have we all heard artists on tour for a new CD play the same sets multiple times? Dedicated to You is still new (although Elling and Hobgood are already well into planning their next recording with Concord), and while Elling mentioned DTY and the fact that it would be available for sale in the lobby after the show, they are not playing that show everywhere they go. (Though they are playing it on their European tour, which begins October 24 in Cork, Ireland.) Selected songs are being incorporated into the vast and expanding Elling-Hobgood repertoire.



Playing with a big band can’t be as spontaneous as playing with a quartet. There are charts to be learned ahead of time. When Elling told the Gustavus crowd that the quartet would be performing some tunes from DTY, some requests, and “some things I haven’t thought of yet,” I took that to mean the set list was not carved in stone and they would go at least in part where the spirit of the performance and the house moved them. But with a big band, even the encore is decided and rehearsed in advance.

I wonder if the sets they played on stage in Fargo were the same as they played earlier that day, during their one and only rehearsal with the band. We were given a printed program with titles prefaced by “Program to be selected from the following.” Over two sets, they played most but not all of the songs listed, swapping “Man in the Air” for “Say It (Over and Over Again)” and changing the order significantly. I didn’t see any of the musicians madly shuffling charts on their stands, but perhaps Elling decided the order of the program as the evening went along? That would be interesting to know.

A bit about the Jazz Arts Big Band: Founded in 1991, the 17-member band is made up of professional musicians/jazz educators from the Fargo-Moorhead area. A nonprofit organization, it has a board and depends on grants, sponsors, and individual supporters—just like Minnesota's JazzMN Big Band which, I learned later from Jazz Arts Group executive director Rochelle Roesler, was modeled on the Jazz Arts band. (JAG is the umbrella group that brought Elling to town. This is its 19th season. Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon will perform in February. Past guest artists have included Conrad Herwig and Freddy Cole. JAG also has an educational mission; Elling gave a class on Friday for students that was also open to the public. Twin Cities-based vocalist Nancy Harms went to Fargo a day early so she could attend the class.)



I’ve seen Elling with a big band only once before, at an International Association for Jazz Educators conference in NYC. (RIP, IAJE: Roesler saw Elling at the final conference in Toronto, and that’s when she decided she had to bring him to Fargo.) I saw him with the Bob Mintzer Big Band, a Grammy-winning organization led by jazz great (and Yellowjacket) Mintzer. The Jazz Arts band is not the Mintzer band, but it’s a good band and it was up for what Elling wanted it to do. Elling made his wants very clear, turning often to conduct the band and push it harder. I’m not sure how musical director Dr. Kyle Mack felt about that and I didn’t get a chance to ask him, but he was certainly gracious about it. (Writing for Fargo-Moorhead’s INFORUM website, John Lamb noted that Elling’s “takeover wasn’t hostile, but it was forceful.”)

The band opened the program with two upbeat tunes: “I Be Serious ’Bout Dem Blues,” a chart by bassist John Clayton, and “Another One of Those Things” a take-off on “Just One of Those Things” by composer John Mahoney. Mack introduced Elling by telling a story about an Arts Midwest master class he had attended several years ago, during which Elling had made a nervous young student feel at ease by asking him to stay after class for a private lesson. Then Elling and Hobgood came out, and those in the audience who were studying their programs and thinking they were about to hear the relatively mellow “Close Your Eyes” were in for a surprise.

Elling was in full bring-down-the-house Sinatra mode for “Luck Be a Lady,” turning to the band and punching the air whenever he wanted a blare from the horns. He got it. He wanted the band to swing hard right now, and he got that, too. The band might have started the evening a bit tentatively (okay, not might have, did), but by the end of the night they were breathing fire.

Everything seemed a bit overamped all evening long. Many of the subtleties usually present in an Elling show were lost. But this was about rousing a crowd that seemed even more reserved than Minnesotans, and more hesitant to show their enthusiasm. Solos (by the band and the guests) weren’t rewarded as often as they should have been.

Next: Mintzer’s arrangement of “My One and Only Love.” (Hear it on Mintzer’s Old School: New Lessons. It's also on DTY in a new arrangement by Hobgood.) Elling stepped aside to let the spotlight fall on the band's guitarist, Tom Carvell. Then, prefaced by Elling as “a little Basie action where the band gets all greasy”: “Goin’ to Chicago Blues,” with lyrics by Jon Hendricks. On this tune, Elling growled and roared. Jaws dropped. He could take this show to Vegas.



The first set ended big with Coltrane’s “Resolution,” featuring Elling’s lyrics and Mintzer’s chart. Elling and the band took it over the top. But first Elling told the story behind his version, which I had not heard before. “Mrs. Coltrane [Alice] did not cotton to people writing lyrics to her husband’s music,” he explained. He sent her a tape and heard back: “The first word is ‘God’ and I like that and that’s right, so he can record this—but no more from anybody.”

After the break, the second set began with two more tunes by the band: Lee Konitz’s “Subconscious-Lee,” arranged by David Springfield, and Horace Silver’s delightful “Filthy McNasty,” arranged by John La Barbera. This time, when Elling and Hobgood stepped on stage, they started with “Close Your Eyes” in a big band arrangement by Shelly Berg which Elling recorded earlier with the USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra. (You can find on iTunes if you’re so inclined. Search for USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra).

The band sat out for the next tune, the tender and beautiful “Say It (Over and Over Again)” from DTY (and also on Hobgood’s “Left to My Own Devices,” in a version for solo piano). Elling began by telling the crowd that Hobgood’s arrangement on DTY was for jazz quartet, saxophonist Ernie Watts, and string quartet (ETHEL), but “any night I have Laurence Hobgood with me, I have an instant ten-fingered orchestra.” This was the evening’s most romantic moment, a wonderful performance by a master of the love song and his elegant, intuitive, expressive collaborator. The crowd—about 400 people, not a full house but a good house, split among chairs on the main level and sofas/cocktail-style tables on the mezzanine—was rapt.



Before the closer, Elling took time to praise the band and introduce each member by name, “these handsome men, because everybody has a mother and they all want to hear their little boys’ names.” He reminded us that CDs were available in the lobby, each “a fitting coaster for anyone who likes a drink,” pointed us toward his website with the words “it’s costing me a fortune; it costs you nothing,” and said that his next CD—with John Patitucci on bass and Peter Erskine on drums (!!!)—will probably be out in the spring of 2010. Then the great, colorful story-song “Nature Boy.” If you want to see Kurt sing it with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, here’s a video.

The encore, during which Elling conducted the band: “My Foolish Heart.” Two full, varied, enjoyable sets had come to an end.

But the night wasn’t over. Roesler kindly invited us to a reception at The Wine Bar, a small café in a strip mall where we had some lovely Penfold shiraz and I had the chance to talk with Dr. Matthew Patnode, a saxophonist with the big band (who told me how it works—thanks for that, Dr. P.), and with Hobgood, who was seated across the table from me.

Having read Hobgood’s postings on Elling’s website (the Forum section), I always thought he would be interesting to talk with, and he was. Topics ranged from the upcoming Jazz at Lincoln Center concert with Richard Galliano (Friday–Saturday, May 14–15, 2010), a meeting with Galliano in Paris (where the accordionist is a superstar), Turkish music, world music, the Dakota jazz club in Minneapolis, life in Chicago, life in New York, the Green Mill in Chicago, Hobgood's friend Patricia Barber (he calls her Patty), the piano he recently played at a concert in Des Moines, shopping for silk shirts in Los Angeles, the prospect of composing for string quartet, listening to Shostakovich’s string quartets (numbers 4 and 6, if I remember correctly), the next Elling CD and how amazing it will be with Patitucci and Erskine, Hobgood’s recent one-night engagement at Small’s (you can listen to both sets online), and more.



Meanwhile HH, seated at my right, was talking with Elling, who was seated at his right, about photography and music and Monterey and the Iron Chef television program (this being a bar, the TVs were on). I asked Elling if he cooked. He doesn't.

The wine was passed, glasses were filled, glasses were emptied, and we ordered more.

Photos by John Whiting.

Kurt Elling Quartet at Gustavus Adolphus College: Worth the drive

Kurt and his collaborator

Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota is about an hour’s drive from Minneapolis, a bit longer if you stick to speed limits. It’s also Kurt Elling’s alma mater (class of 1989), and last night (Oct. 10) he returned for homecoming and a concert at Bjorling Recital Hall, where he first performed jazz before a live audience.

How many times have I heard Elling sing? I’ve lost count—maybe 20? And I’m not through yet. He’s always evolving, pushing himself, changing, going in new directions, taking risks, trying new things. I’ve never once seen him just go through the motions. He just gets better, more subtle and more powerful, commanding the stage and holding the audience. His voice is a Stradivarius, improving with the years. He must work very, very hard.

As I drive to Saint Peter with a friend, we wonder—will we hear the Dedicated to You show again? (Elling has been on tour with that in support of his latest CD on Concord, his take on the iconic Johnny Hartman-John Coltrane sessions—not a replication, an interpretation, with wonderful arrangements by Laurence Hobgood.) I’ve seen it in Monterey and in Minneapolis, and I think—if he wants to do it again, that’s fine.

He doesn’t. He cherry-picks songs from it (as he has done with his project with Fred Hersch, Leaves of Grass) but this is a whole new show as far as I can tell, full of favorites and songs not yet recorded but promised for his next Concord release.

Maybe because he’s back home at Gustavus (of which he always speaks fondly), maybe because Bjorling is such an intimate and inviting space (lined in wood, it seats just 475, and the acoustics are pin-drop perfect), maybe because he’s playing to at least a partly college crowd, Elling seems especially loose, relaxed, and anything-goes. He dances and glides across the stage, makes jokes, and addresses the audience throughout the performance. He’s warmer and more playful than I’ve ever seen him in a club setting, except perhaps at Birdland.

The night begins with a sweet, funny moment. Laurence, drummer Ulysses Owens, and Nigerian-British bass player Michael Olatuja come out through a door at stage left, take their places, and wait. Will they play an instrumental crowd-warmer? No, they just wait. The audience is absolutely still. Then Elling opens the door, which gives a loud crick crick. In pin-drop acoustics. Note to Gustavus: WD-40.

Song by song, here’s what happens next.

1. “Autumn Nocturne,” entirely a cappella. Elling’s voice sounds as if he has spent the last several hours warming up. This nostalgic, achy tune is a perfect start to a concert in a state that just last night had its first dusting of snow.

2. “My Foolish Heart,” with trio. The version that includes the poem by Sufi saint Rabia of Basra (“The moon was once a moth who ran to God…”). This seems to be Elling’s preferred version now; it’s the only one I’ve heard him sing live. There’s another, with a poem by St. John of the Cross, on Live in Chicago (1999). He ends on a high note that lasts and lasts and slowly fades and no one breathes until it’s over.

3. Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out.” Seriously swinging. Forget the original pop song smoothie. It’s a jazz song now. I’ve read about Elling performing this song but have never heard it until now. Hoping it will be on the new CD.

Break: Elling talks about how much he loves the fall, the “magnificent everything season…. Summer is like finishing up the year for me.” Then tells us a bit about Dedicated to You, how the band recorded it live (at the Allen Room in Jazz at Lincoln Center) and had “one take to get it right…I’m pretty happy with much of it.” He promises to sing “some from that, some requests, and some things I haven’t thought of yet.”

4. “Dedicated to You,” a measured, velvety ballad on the original Coltrane/Hartman album, is a whole new song with Hobgood’s spirited arrangement—there’s bounce to it. Still beautiful but more modern. Hobgood is a genius.


Ulysses Owens

5. Working title: “Kabuki Cowboy.” Elling’s description: “A Marc Johnson lick with a lyric I’ve written.” A work in progress, and I’m glad I’m here to see/hear it. To me, this kind of experience is the whole reason to see jazz live. It's a surprise, a delight, a tour-de-force, a high-wire act.

It starts with teasing back-and-forth between Elling and drummer Owens. Elling scats a rhythm, Owens repeats and elaborates. Again. Fun to watch and hear. You can tell Owens doesn’t know exactly what Elling will do next—he’s a hitter on the mound, swinging at pitches. Then Olatuja joins in, and Hobgood, playing the piano like a kora (thanks for that insight, Janis), one hand holding down strings inside so the sound is more plucked than struck.

The lyrics are wild, plentiful, far-fetched, and colorful--almost stream-of-consciousness. Something about “a little man riding around in a space capsule deep inside my head,” about “digging everything in life” and “thinking all the time.” Hip, chatty, cool. I would have taken more notes but I was listening too hard. New CD, please.


Kurt with Michael Olatuja

6. “You Are Too Beautiful” from Dedicated to You. A complete change of mood/direction that makes perfect sense. Elling introduces it by saying “By osmosis, you know this song, even if you don’t know this song.” A showcase for his amazing voice, its range and depth and resonance.

7. “Late Night Willie.” Hobgood plays a gospel groove and we’re off on another adventure—to me, the centerpiece of the entire night. Is this Elling’s take on the Keith Jarrett tune by the same name? I don’t know and can’t say but I’m guessing it is.

It starts with a story that seems customized for this crowd: about being in college, discovering yourself, finding out if you’re a late-night person or an early person. “Your perception will alter radically if you stay awake for 24 hours at a time…. You’ll find your sleep cycle has made you misperceive reality…. You’ll feel different about the day when you’ve already lived through one and you’re still up. You’ll wonder, ‘What will happen if I stay up for two days?’” There’s a very funny bit about being at a party, deciding to leave early, feeling someone pulling on the back of your coat (here Elling pulls on the back of his own suit jacket and poses as if surprised), and discovering it’s the devil disguised as your friend, who talks you into staying.


Kurt gets down

Throughout, the amazing Hobgood is right there with Elling. His piano accompaniment--intuitive, witty and wry--turns a monologue into a dialogue, a layered conversation. Fascinating to see and hear.

Then Elling launches into reams of lyrics, heaps of lyrics, singing fast. Playful, smart stuff, the total opposite in mood, style, and intensity of the Hartman/Coltrane project. A phrase I loved and managed to scribble: “Unless you’re Miles Davis, there’s always some brother, some other smoother than you.”

Elling steps aside and Hobgood takes it away and I will forever regret not making a clandestine recording of what happens next (which I would never do, but I’m just saying): a solo that strides across the musical landscape like Colossus, from gospel to blues to jazz to classical, thick chords and whispered single notes and glittering ornaments. The ending is delicious, so beautiful and romantic, and the drums and bass return and Elling steps forward and it’s a satiny segue into…

8. “Stairway to the Stars.” I’m still puzzling over how “Late Night Willie” turned into Rachmaninov. But I’m happy to hear this lovely song, which Elling sings on Hobgood’s latest CD, When the Heart Dances (2009). That is definitely worth checking out BTW; Hobgood’s playing throughout is gorgeous, and his bassist is not too shabby: Charlie Haden. I especially love the first tune, “Que Sera Sera.”

Break: Elling introduces the band: young Juilliard grad Owens, who’s “elbowing his way onto the New York music scene in all the right ways,” bassist Olatuja, “on loan from Terence Blanchard for the weekend.” He saves his most profound thanks for Hobgood: “my great collaborator and friend of more than 16 years…he makes so much of what we do possible…his arrangements and improvisational skills…he’s half of the success we have.”

9. Pure scat singing. Is it Monk’s “Well You Needn’t”? I think so, but only because (thanks to Carmen McRae’s Carmen Sings Monk) I can sense words behind the scatting. Maybe Elling’s version is built on it, or draws from it, or…who cares.

This is the official last tune of the evening, after which the band will return for an encore. But as I listen to Elling scat Monk (or whatever), I’m thinking as I always do when I hear him live that no one singing today can touch him. The awards (Best Male Vocalist multiple times), the heaps of praise (“standout male jazz vocalist of our time”—New York Times; “may be the greatest male jazz singer of all times”—Jazz Review), the awestruck reviews (yes, this is yet another one) are not fluff or hyperbole but simple fact. What a satisfying evening this has been in every way.

The encore:

10. Hobgood’s “Motherland.” Just Elling and Hobgood on stage in a comment on the times, a plea for unity and change: “Look around/tell me what you see/it isn’t what it’s supposed to be.” Moving and inspiring.

Afterward, Elling greets friends and former classmates in the lobby, and Hobgood signs copies of his new CD. Mine, unfortunately, is in the car.

Worth the drive to Saint Peter—to, in daylight, past leaves of red and gold; from, in darkness, a long, lonely stretch of highway on the Minnesota plains? No question.

Worth the drive to Fargo, North Dakota, next weekend (Oct. 17) to see Elling and Hobgood with the Jazz Arts Big Band? Some people think so. Here’s a link. Tickets still available. Twenty bucks.


Laurence's blue shoes. The back of his jacket
was embroidered in red.

Ten reasons I’m glad to be at the Monterey Jazz Festival

Numbers don’t imply preference or order of importance, they’re just a reminder to stop at 10.

1. Vijay Iyer. Say “VID-jay EYE-ur.” When Ben Ratliff writes “Presto! Here is the new great piano trio,” people notice. I haven’t seen Iyer since he was at the Walker Art Center with Rudresh Mahanthappa in 1996. Monterey may be wishing they had booked him into a larger space than the Coffee House Gallery. With Stephen Crump on bass, Marcus Gilmore on drums. Hoping we’ll hear several cuts from the forthcoming Historicity. Sunday, September 20, 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

2. Buffalo Collision. I’m not joking when I say that if you’re a jazz fan in Minneapolis/St. Paul and you leave town for even a few days, you will miss something you wish you had seen. As I looked ahead to Monterey, I rued missing Buffalo Collision at the Dakota this Friday and Saturday. Somehow they will play the late set there on Saturday (which ends around 1:30 a.m.) and end up in Monterey in time to play the Garden Stage at 5:30 on Sunday afternoon. Ethan Iverson on piano, Dave King on drums, Tim Berne on saxophone, Hank Roberts on cello.

3. The Monterey Jazz Festival All-Stars Featuring Kenny Barron, Regina Carter, Kurt Elling, and Russell Malone. Supergroup! All four of these artists have pleased me immensely in the past—the elegant pianist Barron and adventurous violinist Carter together in Montreal, Malone in various configurations (and in conversation; the angel-faced guitar player tells wicked jokes); vocalist Kurt Elling so many times I should have Platinum Elite status. Jonathan Blake on drums, Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass. Friday, 9:40 p.m., Arena/Jimmy Lyons Stage; Saturday, 8:00 p.m., Dizzy’s Den.

4. Pete Seeger. Not a jazz artist but let’s all get over it. Like many jazz festivals and clubs, Monterey has broadened its scope (it has long featured blues on Saturday afternoons) and if that helps to keep the gates/doors open I’m all for it. Seeger is an icon. Earlier this week my husband and I met someone who had volunteered at the Haight-Ashbury free clinic in the 60s. He talked about the songs, the protests, the artists, the mood, and the excitement of the times as if they all happened yesterday, with special reference to and affection for Seeger. I’m not a folk fan but I’d be a fool to miss this. I’m expecting at least a mention and perhaps a tribute to Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary, who died on Wednesday.

5. Jason Moran & The Bandwagon Premiering Feedback. Someone (and I can’t remember who—tell me and I’ll correct this immediately) recently wrote about how rock music is finding new life in video games and why can’t jazz do the same? So, why not a video game with Vijay Iyer and Jason Moran as riff-to-the-death piano players? Maybe throw in Robert Glasper and Eldar (whom I missed seeing in Minneapolis earlier this week). Back on topic, I most recently saw Moran at the Dakota with Charles Lloyd, Reuben Rogers, and Eric Harland. For many in the audience, Moran stole the show. Can’t wait to hear his new commission. Thank you, Monterey, for commissioning new work by important artists. 7:00 p.m. Sunday, Arena/Jimmy Lyons Stage. Moran and the Bandwagon also play at 9:00 p.m. on Sunday in the Night Club.

6. Dave Brubeck Quartet Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Time Out. Has it really been half a century since Brubeck recorded a tune in 5/4 time that is not only instantly recognizable today but still catchy, infectious, and fun? Brubeck has been part of the Monterey festival since the start. Earlier this year, health problems interrupted his touring schedule. People will rise to their feet en masse when he comes on stage on Sunday night at 8:20 p.m. (or thereabouts) in the Arena. It’s going to be a thrilling, memorable moment. I was here for Brubeck's “Cannery Row Suite” premiere in 2006 (with vocalists Kurt Elling and Roberta Gambarini) and it was unforgettable. With Randy Jones on drums, Bobby Militello on alto sax and flute, Michael Moore on bass. Go Dave!

7. Alfredo Rodriguez Trio. Quincy Jones tried and failed to get this young Cuban pianist a visa. In January 2009--earlier this year, not a typo--he defected to the US. A friend saw him at the Detroit Jazz Festival and raved about him. That’s all I know, but it’s enough to put me in the bleachers at the Garden Stage on Sunday at 4:00 p.m.

8. Dee Dee Bridgewater. The lovely, endlessly creative and surprising Dee Dee! Does she still shave her head? Is she still singing Malian music? She’s coming to Minneapolis next year to sing with the Minnesota Orchestra. Does she have another new project for Monterey or will she draw from her extensive and colorful repertoire of French songs, Kurt Weill tunes, straight-ahead, Ella, Ellington, etc.? Not a clue. Saturday night, 9:20 p.m., Arena/Jimmy Lyons Stage; Saturday night, 11:30 p.m., Dizzy’s Den.

9. Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Quartet. I’ve seen flutist/saxophonist Tabackin at the Artist’s Quarter in St. Paul but never with his wife, pianist/bandleader/composer/arranger/NEA jazz master Akiyoshi. Must stop by the Night Club on Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m. Ack! Same time as Jason Moran's premiere in the Arena! Sometime around 6:30 I'll start gnashing my teeth and wailing.

10. The food, the ambience, the characters. (a) Monterey has good fair food—multi-ethnic, tasty, substantial, prepared in grills and ovens that send clouds of fragrant smoke into the air. This year there’s a salad bar. Heirloom tomatoes? (b) The ambience is laid-back, California-style party. No passing bodies over mosh pits, no fisticuffs or flying F-bombs. It’s genial and courteous, which is not to say it’s fuddy-duddy or boring, just that this is one place where civility apparently still exists and the excitement happens on stage. (c) Hoping the Hat Man (lobster hat, jailbird hat) is still at the Arena gates and Dee Dee Rainbow is feeling well enough to attend this year. She was absent last year and it was a Very Big Deal.

I’m at 10 (and I even fudged 10 a bit) so must quit, but not without mentioning Joe Lovano and Conrad Herwig, Randy Brecker, John Scofield, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the mind-blowing trio of Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White (awesome last week at the Dakota in Minneapolis), Esperanza Spalding, the John Patitucci Trio with Lovano and Brian Blade, and DJ Logic, all of whom will be here in the balmy ocean breezes and cool evening mists of Monterey at a jazz festival that has continued without interruption for 52 consecutive years. Times are tough so the festival has taken the unusual step of offering single-show arena tickets for sale; usually you have to buy a package to get a reserved seat in the Arena, where the biggest names perform. Please, people, come.

This year I'll be reporting on the festival for jazz.com and writing a wrap-up for jazzpolice.com when I return home. So you can check those sites over the weekend and into next week if you want to know more.

Kurt Elling on the Internets

Kurt Elling's new CD, Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman, is at the top of the JazzWeek airplay chart for July 6. I finally bought my copy today from the Electric Fetus, my LRS.

I had been resisting the siren songs of iTunes and Amazon ("click me!") ever since the CD came out on June 23 because I wanted to drive to the Fetus, park in the lot, walk through the security pylons, pass the cards and T-shirts and soaps and stationery and Kangol hats, continue through the music that actually sells all the way to the north end of the store, take a sharp right and end up at the Jazz and Classical New Releases bin—the destination farthest from the door, unless you count the basement.

Kurt was there, of course, and a few more temptations: Farmers by Nature featuring Gerald Cleaver, William Parker, and Craig Taborn, recorded at Stone; the Chris Morrissey Quartet's The Morning World; Fly's Sky & Country with Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier, and Jeff Ballard; and Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra: Book One, which I want to hear before Mayfield comes to town to play with the Minnesota Orchestra later this month.

On the way home, I heard "All or Nothing at All" from Dedicated to You on KBEM.

In mid-June, Ted Panken, that lucky dog, had a lengthy, leisurely, wide-ranging, far-reaching conversation with Elling about all sorts of things (including music, Chicago, God, poetry, the soul, Sinatra, Kerouac, KE's college days, New York, jazz, and Johnny Hartman). The interview is now up on jazz.com. Interesting and worthwhile reading for anyone who enjoys KE and his music.

On the same day Panken's interview was posted, NPR featured "Lush Life" from Dedicated to You as its Song of the Day. Great pick but I wonder how well writer Marc Silver knows KE's music. Silver writes, in part: "Kurt Elling has a lot of gumption. On Dedicated to You, his new CD, he sings the songs of Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane, including the utterly iconic 'Lush Life'--which has been performed by not only Coltrane, but also Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Nat King Cole and even Donna Summers.... Elling doesn't seem intimidated by the song's stature."

Why should he be intimidated? He can sing whatever he pleases, and he has pretty much from the start. One of the many things I enjoy about his live performances is the fact that he takes chances. He never phones it in. He's the Philippe Petit of jazz singers, jumping up and down on a high wire. I've thought that since I first heard him sing at the old Dakota many years ago. And again when I came across his recording of "Tanganyika Dance," his interpretation of the McCoy Tyner tune "Man from Tanganyika," for which KE wrote his own lyrics and which he recorded in 1994, when he was 27 years old, before his first CD as a leader (Close Your Eyes, 1995). Track that down and listen (it's on Bob Belden's Shades of Blue) and see if you think it sounds like someone who's risk-averse.

Some relevant quotes from Panken's interview:

About Dedicated to You:
KE: "It's a very different experience for me just to sing these tunes as opposed to, 'Let's stretch out, and I'll do this gigantic, obnoxious, vocalese thing.' For once, why don't we just bite off as much as we can chew, as opposed to more than we can chew?"

In response to Panken's question about whether the John Coltrane-Johnny Hartman record was important to him in his formative years--something he would have done it if hadn't been proposed to him:
KE: "I wouldn't have thought of it.... I wouldn't have thought to touch on any other than maybe to consider taking Speak No Evil and trying to write a lyric for all of it."
Panken: "That would be a very different proposition."
KE: "That would be a very different proposition. That's the way my head naturally goes, though. 'Let me bite off this gigantic piece that I can't actually do.'"

I wonder what KE has planned for his "Passion World" performance at the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center next May. He's sharing a bill with French jazz accordionist Richard Galliano. And Laurence Hobgood, of course.

Kurt Elling talks about “Dedicated to You”

When: February 19, 2009 • Where: KFAI Radio • Who: Janis Lane-Ewart, “Collective Eye” host; yours truly; Kurt Elling on the phone from NYC

Today (June 23) is the day Kurt Elling fans have been waiting for: the release of his latest CD on Concord, Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman. Recorded in January 2009 in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center, it features saxophonist Ernie Watts, the Laurence Hobgood Trio, and the ETHEL String Quartet.

Earlier this year, on February 19, the night before the “Dedicated to You” tour came to the Ted Mann Theater in Minneapolis as part of the Northrop Jazz Season, Janis Lane-Ewart and I did a live on-air interview with Elling for KFAI Radio. In celebration of the CD release, here’s the transcript, complete and unedited.

KFAI: Mr. Elling, are you there?

Kurt Elling: I sure am. How are you guys doing tonight?

KFAI: We’re fabulous and happy to have you join the Twin Cities community just a few…22 hours before you are arriving in town to share with us the John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman concert.

KE: Mmm-hmm.

KFAI: Looking forward to that—I will mention that I saw it in Monterey last September; I think that was the second time you performed it. Enjoyed it very much and looking forward to seeing it again.

KE: Oh, great. We’ve got some new arrangements that we weren’t able to put into that show. And we’ve recorded it now.

KFAI: I heard about that. At the Allen Room?

KE: Mmm-hmm.

KFAI: Looking forward to hearing that. Janis and I were wondering, and we thought our listeners might be interested to know, what drew you to this project in the first place?

KE: This came about initially at the behest of the Chicago Jazz Festival, which gave me a call about three years ago now inviting me to do something with the Johnny Hartman/John Coltrane material as an opening act for Josh Redman, who was going to be doing the Africa/Brass [a 1961 album by Coltrane]. They wanted to do something that was two sides of John Coltrane.

And, you know, whenever I get a request like that, I’m always interested to entertain it, but I always take it with the proviso that I’m not very interested in the simple reiteration of great music, or even a classic record like this. That doesn’t seem very interesting to me, it doesn’t seem very interesting to the audience… if you want to hear that specific thing, wouldn’t you just want to hear Johnny Hartman do it?

So I was working with a good friend from Chicago named Jim Gailloreto at that time on arrangements for his own recording for his own group featuring saxophone, voice, string quartet, and bass, and it was such an interesting sound that I hadn’t really considered before that I immediately said, well, let’s get some string quartet on this, because it updates the flavor, or it changes it around, or it puts it into a new space in such a way that it maintains the, what, the sort of ballad-neighborhood intensity. So that’s how it started.

We had Ari Brown, a really wonderful tenor player out of Chicago, on that initial thing, and we’ve had Bob Mintzer play it with us a number of times in different configurations, Carnegie Hall and such, and then, as you mentioned, we recorded it just the other week at Lincoln Center with Ernie Watts, who will be with us in Minneapolis this time. It’s just gonna be thrilling.

KFAI: He was with you in Monterey as well.

KE: Mmm-hmm.

KFAI: So the string quartet was a really interesting idea. Did you know the ETHEL—you’re using the ETHEL string quartet in your performances and I assume the recording as well—was there a particular reason you went with them?

KE: Well, you know, they have a musical flexibility that is purposeful. You think string quartet, you think four people who are very, very serious, man, who are going to be doing Beethoven’s such-and-such or other, and they can certainly blow like that, but they’re also very interested and they spend a lot of their time doing new music with some very hip people, big pop stars and new music people and Charles Ives things and just crazy stuff, and they can swing, too.

So their musical approach seemed to be to be the right kind of flexibility, and then when we got together and actually tried to play some of the stuff, they sounded great, and they’re wonderful people to work with, too, so it all falls together.

KFAI: They were at the Southern theater in Minneapolis not too long, ago, Janis; do you remember that?

KE: Oh!

KFAI: I do. And I also, having come from Chicago and served on the board of the Jazz Institute and on the programming committee as well, that makes a variety of decisions about programming for the festival, and having heard you describe the musicians that you have performed with on this particular project, I’m also curious about what this particular work means to you at this point in time. It was originally presented to you three years ago, and now three years hence, when we are in a different historical moment, you have decided to not only record the work but are also touring with it. Is there some connection that’s happening for you now in terms of this period of time?

KE: I don’t know if there’s anything as deep as all that specifically happening as much as there is an opportunity for me in between studio recordings…. I had never really intended to record this material, this is more of a special project for me, and people who have followed me in the past know that when I do a special project, it really usually only lasts a couple of nights or a month, or a small tour later or what have you, and then it goes the way of all things, but in this case—

KFAI: This has been kind of a big deal. You’re doing this through April, correct?

KE: Yeah, it’s definitely blossomed of its own accord. And, I mean, you know, it’s my thing, if any number of my other special projects would have had lives as extensive as this, including some of the theatrical things, the things that I’ve done with the Steppenwolf Theatre, the things that I’ve done with dancers and what not, if any of those had come across with the kind of velocity that we seem to be getting with this, I would have been happy about that, too.

You try your hardest to make interesting, beautiful, creative things, and for them to be seen by the broadest number of people. In this case, it seems like people really like to hear it, and thanks to people—you mentioned Monterey before, and a number of different places that just really like the concept, and then when they hear the music they really want to support it, who am I to say no to that?

KFAI: You mentioned that you had some new arrangements for us this time, and I was wondering how else has this project evolved for you since you started performing it?

KE: Well, you know, I think we’ve got a pretty good set list together, for one thing [laughs]. We’ve all grown accustomed to each other, it’s been…. I’ll tell you, one of the really significant ways, because of the number of dates we’ve done, and now the recording, we’ve had the opportunity to get to know Ernie Watts a lot better than we would have had we only done the show a couple of times, and the level of musicianship, and the velocity of his music, and the energy that’s coming out of him, and he’s sharing with us and with the audience, is just a wonderful and overpowering thing. I really can’t say enough about what a pleasure it is, and how inspiring it is, to have him with us every night.

KFAI: In the work that you’re doing now, Mr. Elling, it’s evolved over time, and I know, having come from Chicago, that a lot of your work is in some regards in development through the Wednesday night sessions that you do or have done at the Green Mill. Have you found a similar home for your new development or further development while you’re now in New York?

KE: I haven’t really, but then I haven’t really had that much time to actually be home. We’re on the road so much, we were just counting up the nights from last year, and it was about 180 nights on the road doing dates, so by the time you get to that number of dates and you come home, you’ve done a lot of developing [laughs]. You’re ready to sit down on a Wednesday night and act like a normal person.

KFAI: I want to mention for people who are interested in knowing where you’re touring, and reading your lyrics, and learning about your band, that you have a really excellent, very friendly, accessible, information-packed website at KurtElling.com and I would suggest that people go there.

KE: Yeah. Thank you.

KFAI: We know that you are on Eastern coast time and so we don’t want to keep you up knowing that you’re traveling tomorrow. I do want to ask you if there’s anything else that we’ve not touched upon that you’d like to share with our listeners here in the Twin Cities.

KE: Well, you know, every time I come back to the Twin Cities, it’s a very, very special occasion for me. I have so many wonderful friends and so many memories.

I’m a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus [a college in St. Peter, MN] and I really have a deep, deep love and kinship with Minnesota and with that part of the world. Some of my most wonderful memories, developing, not just as a person but as a musician, at Gustavus and the number of nights we got to sing together—that kind of thing. It’s really a beautiful thing.

I’m so, so pleased to be able to come home again and present such a pretty thing to you. I really hope people will come out and brave that which must be braved. [Elling's reference is to winter in Minnesota.]

KFAI: It’s not so bad at the moment.

KE: We’ll definitely play as well as we can for you.

KFAI: We look forward to hearing you tomorrow night, and tonight’s program will continue with the music you have shared with listeners on various recordings and thjat also provide our listeners with a continuation of the celebration of African-American history here on KFAI.

KE: Beautiful.

KFAI: Thank you very much. We look forward to welcoming you back tomorrow.

KE: Marvelous. Thanks so much.

KFAI: See you then. You’re welcome. Travel safely.

P.S. The set list for the rest of the program included music by Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane, and recordings by Elling of songs by African-American composers or musicians. (This show aired during African-American History Month.) We ended with Elling’s “Tanganyika Dance” from Bob Belden’s Shades of Blue, a gem from 1994 based on McCoy Tyner’s “Man from Tanganyika” (Tender Moments, 1967) for which Elling wrote lyrics. Shades of Blue came out the year before Elling released his first CD as leader, Close Your Eyes (1995).

At last week’s Jazz Awards in New York, Elling was named Male Vocalist of the Year.

On the radio

If it hadn't been for radio, I might not have made it through my teen years. I had an enforced early bedtime—lights out by 9:30. To a night owl, that's cruel and unusual.

For a while I sneaked a small electric lamp with a hot bulb under the covers and tried to read; that lasted until I burned a hole through the front cover and several pages of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. (True story.)

Luckily I had a transistor radio. It was the size of a paperback book, with a snap-shut leather case and an earbud the shape and hardness of an acorn. I tucked the radio under my pillow and the earbud in the ear facing down, made sure the wire was concealed, and listened.

There were fewer radio stations then and especially at night, radio waves traveled many miles and brought music and deejays from far away. This is how I first heard Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence"—alone in my inky room, the house asleep around me—which is the best time to hear "Hello darkness, my old friend."

Today I'm a fan of public radio: KBEM, KFAI, MPR. Our rental car in Florida had Sirius satellite radio and that was fun for a few days but here I'm happy with Kevin O'Connor's drive-time show, late night with Bob Parlocha (which airs on KBEM), KFAI's eclectic variety, MPR's news programming, and the Current.

Janis Lane-Ewart of KFAI and I had talked for a while about doing an all-Kurt Elling show. We're both Kurt fans; we've seen him together at the Dakota and at Birdland in NYC. He's the only performer I have actually traveled to see; he's been the excuse for a trip to Chicago (the Man in the Air CD release), my second Monterey Jazz Festival in 2006, and Valentine's Day in NYC this year.



Last night (5/29/08) I was Janis's guest on her weekly "Collective Eye" radio show, with 90 minutes of Kurt Elling songs, vocalese, scatting, and spoken word. It went well and we plan to do it again, hopefully with Kurt joining us on the phone. The show will be archived for 2 weeks for streaming. Find the playlist here.

Photo of yours truly by John Whiting.

For Kurt Elling Fans

UPDATED 09/10/09

Since March has been a month for male jazz singers (Bruce Henry, J.D. Steele, Kevin Mahogany), I thought I’d share a work-in-progress. Either it's a labor of love or a sign of OCD.

I’m a longtime Kurt Elling fan. In addition to buying his CDs, I watch for tracks by him on CDs by other artists.

Here’s what I have so far, in order of release date starting with most recent. Corrections and additions are welcome. I found a few more than Kurt lists on his Collaborations page.

KURT ELLING RECORDINGS ON OTHER ARTISTS' CDs
—2009 • Laurence Hobgood: When the Heart Dances • NAIM • B001W2OVUA • Kurt sings "First Song," "Stairway to the Stars," and "Daydream." With Charlie Haden on bass.
—2008: Till Bronner: Rio • Uni Classics Jazz UK • B001CRB9DM • Kurt is one of several guest artists. He sings "Sim Ou Nao."
—2006 • Bob Mintzer Big Band: Old School: New Lessons • MCG Jazz • B000E6EHRC • Kurt sings “My One and Only Love,” “Resolution.”
—2006 • Charley Harrison with Jeff Lindberg’s Chicago Jazz Orchestra: Keeping My Composure • C3 Records • B000EOTRY2 • Kurt sings “Jeannine.”
—2006 • Jim Gailloreto • Jim Gailloreto’s Jazz String Quintet • NAIM • B000E1NVI8 • Kurt sings “Fair Weather,” “Universal Soul.”
—2006 • Fred Hersch Ensemble: Leaves of Grass • Palmetto • B0007GADW2 • Kurt sings 15 selections including “The Sleepers.” When Hersch set out to compose this music, he had Elling in mind as the main singer.
—2006 • Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis: Showcase (DVD/CD) • LRS Media • B000EXZKQM • Kurt sings “Take Five” with Al Jarreau.
—2006 • Up on the Roof: The Best of Kennedy Center Jazz on Jazzset, Vol. 1 • Label? • ASIN? • A collection of live recordings from Kennedy Center performances, broadcast on the WBGO radio program JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. Kurt sings “You Don’t Know What Love Is.”
—2005 • Laurence Hobgood Trio: Crazy World • NAIM • B0009LNRFU • Kurt sings “More Than You Know,” “Endless Stars.” NB: I found this at www.spinningdogrecords.com.
—2005/2007 (reissue) • Ralph Covert: Ralph’s World • Disney • B000VDDCEM • Kurt sings background vocals on “Tickle a Tiger.”
—2005/2007 (reissue) • Ralph Covert: Ralph’s World at the Bottom of the Sea • Mini Fresh (a division of Minty Fresh Inc.)• B000VDDCDS • Kurt sings background vocals on “Many Things to Know.”
—2004 • Bob Minzter Big Band: Live at MCG • MCG Jazz • B0002IQHFC • Kurt sings “My Foolish Heart,” “Eye of the Hurricane,” “All Is Quiet.”
—2004 • Jon Weber: Simple Complex • The Orchard • B0001NBMNK • Kurt sings “Is It Only Me?”
—2003 • Jackie Allen: The Men in My Life • A440 Records • B000094Q1U • Kurt sings “The Bad and the Beautiful.”
—2002 (released 2005) • Retrospective • Released in conjunction with the 125th anniversary of the University of Southern California. Kurt sings "Close Your Eyes" by Bernice Petkere, arranged by USC faculty member Shelly Berg. Recorded at Capitol Studios with the USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra.
—2001 • Orbert Davis: Priority • 3Sixteen Records • B0000648BP • Kurt sings “The Double Blues,” “Midnight in Bahia.”
—2001 • George Freeman: At Long Last George • Savant • B0000589CR • Kurt sings “At Long Last Love,” “Sugar.”
—2001 • Charlie Hunter: Songs from the Analog Playground • Blue Note • B00005NU6A • Kurt sings “Desert Way,” “Close Your Eyes.”
—2001 • Laurence Hobgood: Left to My Own Devices • NAIM • B00005A7PS • Kurt sings “The Waltz,” “Going Back to Joe’s,” “The Masquerade Is Over.”
—1999 • Joanne Brackeen: Pink Elephant Magic • Arkadia Jazz • B00000I89T • Kurt sings “What’s Your Choice, Rolls Royce?”
—1999 • Rhythm & Brass: More Money Jungle: Ellington Explorations • Koch • B00000I0DY • Kurt sings “Ellington Indigos.”
—1998 • Yellowjackets: Club Nocturne • Warner Bros. UK • B00000AG9M • Kurt sings “Up from New Orleans,” “All Is Quiet.”
—1998/2000 (reissue) • Liquid Soul: Make Some Noise • Ark 21 • B0000061TM • Kurt sings “Salt Peanuts/Chocolate Covered Nut.”
—1997 • Rex Richardson: Pandora’s Pocket • Igmod Records • B0000031NQ • Kurt sings “Hymn to the Mother of the World” and the title track.
—1997 • Yule Be Boppin’ • Blue Note • B000002ULY • Kurt sings “Cool Yule.”
—1996 • Bob Belden’s Shades of Blue • Blue Note • B000005GZU • Kurt sings “Tanganyika Dance.”

A stray: I found (on iTunes) a version of "Close Your Eyes" sung by Kurt with the USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Shelly Berg. It is (I believe) from a CD called Retrospective, released in October 2005 in conjunction with the 125th anniversary of the University of Southern California.

Want more Kurt? Find several sound files on his Web site.

Watch Kurt Elling and Al Jarreau sing "Take 5."



COMPILATIONS INCLUDING SONGS BY KURT ELLING
—2007 • Playboy Jazz Love Songs After Dark • Pablo • B000NJL0CK • Includes “Change Partners/If You Never Come to Me” from Nightmoves.
—2005 • Blue Note Plays Sting • Blue Note • B00074CC7I • “Oh My God” from Live in Chicago.
—2002 • Kei Kobayashi: Routine Jazz: Blue Note DJ Mix • Toshiba EMI Japan • ???? • “My Love, Effendi” from This Time It’s Love.
—2001 • The New Young Lions of Jazz • Arkadia Jazz • B000056IDK • “What’s Your Choice, Rolls Royce?” from Joanne Brackeen’s Pink Elephant Magic.
—1999 • The Blue Note Years Vol. 7: Blue Note Now & Then • Blue Note • B00000IP3I • “Tanganyika Dance” from Bob Belden’s Shades of Blue.
—1998 • Blue Box 2: The Finest in Jazz Vocalists • EMI International • B00005Y9UY • “Ballad of a Sad Young Man” from Close Your Eyes, “Time of the Season” from The Messenger; with Cassandra Wilson.
—1997 • A Chicago Jazz Tour • Big Chicago Records • B00000G279 • “Dolores Dream” from Close Your Eyes.
—1995 • Esquire Jazz Collection: Crossover Stars: Crosstown Traffic • Blue Note • B000005H1F • “Never Say Goodbye (For Jodi)” from Close Your Eyes.

LYRICS BY KURT ELLING
Are other people performing and recording Kurt’s lyrics? So far I know just these two examples.
—2007 • Sean Jones: Kaleidoscope • Mack Avenue • B000SQKYOS • Carolyn Perteete sings Kurt’s song “Esperanto,” with lyrics he wrote to Vince Mendoza’s tune titled “Esperanca.” Hear Kurt’s version on Live in Chicago.
—1997 • Manhattan Transfer: Swing • Atlantic/WEA • B000002JD8 • Vocalese lyric for “Sing You Sinners” by Kurt; additional lyrics and vocal arrangements by Janis Siegel.

Read Kurt’s lyrics online.
Buy a signed copy of his book, Lyrics.

Kurt Elling and Nancy King at the Allen Room: Concert review

When: 2/15/08
Where: Jazz at Lincoln Center, Allen Room
Who: Kurt Elling (vocals), Nancy King (vocals), Laurence Hobgood (piano), Rob Amster (bass), Greg Hutchinson (drums)

This concert is the real reason we’re in New York. That it falls on Valentine’s Day weekend is a happy accident. I’ve been a Kurt Elling fan since I first heard him sing at the old Dakota in Bandana Square, whenever that was. Over the years, I’ve seen him in Minneapolis, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the IAJE stage in New York, the Monterey Jazz Festival, and Birdland. Tonight’s show is in the elegant Allen Room, part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center complex.

We’re at the 9:30 p.m. set, so it’s dark outside and the city lights shine through the wall of glass behind the stage. (The wall measures 90' wide x 50' high and tilts out.) The traffic along Central Park South is a slow lava flow. We’re sitting in the second row to the left of the stage and can see people moving around their homes in the high-rise buildings across the way.

Nancy King shares the bill, but Kurt comes out alone with his band to open with “Beware My Foolish Heart.” I love this song, and I love how he sings it, but I don’t love the particular verse he adds.

Elling arcanum: He has used two different verses in this song. On the Live in Chicago CD (1999), he sings his version of “The Dark Night,” a poem by 16th-century Christian mystic St. John of the Cross. Elling’s lyrics: “One dark night/Fired with love’s urgent longings/Clothed in sheer grace/I went out unseen…to where she waited for me….” He turns a passionate poem about a soul seeking union with God into a passionate poem about a man seeking union with his lover. Not much of a stretch and it works.

Tonight he sings his version of “The Moon Was Once a Moth,” a poem by 8th century Sufi saint Rabia of Basra. From what I can tell, Elling expands on the original (about a moth who runs to God, they embrace, she dies, and “now just her luminous soul remains”). In Elling’s version, “they embraced and she passed into death/with ecstasy dissolving her body in a thousand signing smiles/her limbs fell softly to earth to sanctify the night meadows….” I can’t get past the self-immolating moth and the little legs drifting down. To me, it’s a big ewwww.

Musically, it’s gorgeous: just Elling and his collaborator Hobgood on piano, so beautiful, with Elling ending the moth tale (“and again/and again/and again”) on a high note that won’t let go, then it’s back to “Beware My Foolish Heart” and the bass and drums return. Afterward, Elling quips “Thank you, good night!”

Next up: “Change Partners,” with a solo by Amster. Then Betty Carter’s “Tight,” which Elling begins by finger-snapping the rhythm for drummer Hutchinson, who starts off on brushes. This is my first time seeing Hutchinson. Elling changes drummers. It seemed for a time that Willie Jones would be the fourth member of the quartet, but Elling’s Web site names Kobie Watkins as drummer, and we saw Hutchinson, so who knows? (BTW, tonight Jones is performing with Ernestine Anderson at the Iridium.)

On “Tight,” Elling scats, something I’ve been waiting for. He’s a bit more hammy tonight than other times I’ve seen him. Maybe it’s the occasion, maybe the venue, maybe the crowd.

Afterward, Nancy King enters on her new hip and a cane. Their first song, “What’s New,” is a perfect segue into the rest of the evening, a mutual admiration society of two powerful singers. Their scatting is playful stream-of-consciousness, blending in bits from other songs (“In this world of overrated pleasures and underrated treasures, I’m glad there is you….” “You are too beautiful and I’m a fool for beauty”).

Elling steps back, leaving King and Hobgood alone for a ballad, “La Valse des Lilas (Once Upon a Summertime),” with English lyrics by Johnny Mercer (“Once upon a summertime/if you recall/we stopped beside a little flower stall/A bunch of bright forget-me-nots was all I’d let you buy me”). Wistful and delicate.

King is an expressive, emotional singer, and we should all be ashamed of ourselves for not buying every one of her CDs (now hard to find) and traveling to her home town of Portland to hear her sing. King decided “to do singing for my life” at age 14, after hearing Ella Fitzgerald scat at a 1954 concert. She has turned down lucrative contracts that stipulate no scatting. When you hear King scat, it’s evident this is her natural language, as effortless as breath.

Next, Monk’s “Misterioso,” vocalese version, with Elling and King trading syllables, backed only by Amster on bass. Their voices are perfect together, and Amster’s accompaniment is flawless. After, Elling says, “And that’s why I’ve kept him in the band for 13 years.”

Elling follows with his own lyric to Dexter Gordon’s “Where Are You,” a song he introduces as a “torn Valentine” (“Where is your heart, my love?…. I need you baby, but darling where, baby, where are you?”) Hobgood plays an exquisite solo. While Elling’s name is the reason I buy tickets (and hop on planes), Hobgood is every bit as good, an intelligent and eloquent performer. I’ve read several writers who bemoan the fact that he isn’t better known on his own merits. When you see Elling and Hobgood together, it’s clear that this partnership is greater than the sum of its parts. Any time a group includes a singer, the singer takes the spotlight, something Hobgood seems to accept without feeling diminished.

The penultimate song of the evening: “Nature Boy.” This is mostly Elling’s tune; King contributes a few side notes. Because the show is nearing the end (a bit too soon for me and the $61.50 per ticket price), Hutchinson takes a lengthy solo. It’s over, everyone exits the stage, then returns for a “Stardust” encore.

It’s been an evening of standards, of Elling’s resonant mahogany and King’s rich cherry wood. Earlier, Elling told us that he’ll travel to Portland next week to perform with King there. Is a recording in their future? We can hope.

Photos: Jazz at Lincoln Center does not allow photos, not even snaps of the view out the window once the show is over and the artists are gone. Geez, lighten up, this isn't the Federal Reserve. Luckily Elling wore the same suit when he performed at the Dakota in March 2007, when this photo was taken. King sang at the Jazz Standard in January 2007. Here she is with bassist Reuben Rogers.

See a view of the Allen Room here. For the Elling/King concert, seats filled the room.

Music as Morning Ritual

Architect Daniel Libeskind starts each day by listening to music. "It's not...a luxury, it's almost a necessity," he told Weekend America's Gideon D'Arcangelo. "And it's not background.... I sit down, when I have time, and mostly I do have time early in the morning, just to listen to music."

He describes his morning music ritual as "the equivalent for the soul [of] what running and jogging would be for the body... [The] soul also needs to be fed. Otherwise it's empty. "

On one morning's playlist: Fugue #22 from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier played by Glen Gould, Cab Calloway's take on "Saint Louis Blues," and a free-jazz improvisation by pianist Keith Tippett.

For a while, I began each day with "Resolution," Kurt Elling's vocalese to the John Coltrane tune from A Love Supreme. It's mighty music with mighty lyrics, including prayers to God, Buddha, Allah, Lama, Jesus, and Vishnu. I've heard Kurt perform this live maybe three times, and each time it knocked me silly.

Read the whole Weekend America story and a list of songs listeners have submitted as their favorite day-starters.
Hear Elling sing "Resolution" and read his lyrics.
Hear Elling talk about "Resolution."

Photo: Kurt Elling and pianist Laurence Hobgood at the Dakota, March 2007