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.

Jazz on NPR

Jazz may be off the radio in many markets, but it’s not off National Public Radio. A link on jazz.com sent me to a jazz series airing this July on NPR’s News & Notes. Hosted by Farai Chideya, it began on July 3 with a segment called “What Is Jazz?” with experts Bill Kirchner, David Schroeder, and Eugene Holly Jr. On July 4, “Inside the Culture of Jazz” featured a conversation with trumpeter Nicholas Payton and drummer Kendrick Scott. Robert O'Mealy, the Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, discussed "The Intersection of Jazz and Social Protest" on July 10. July 11 looked at the jazz legacy in “A Jazz Journey from Its New Orleans Birthplace” with trumpeter Irvin Mayfield, soul singer Irma Thomas, and Dirty Dozen Brass Band member Greg Davis. Each segment is about 17 minutes long.

Chideya admits at the outset of the series and repeats at least once that she doesn’t know a lot about jazz. I’m still trying to figure out if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. If she did know a lot about jazz, she might have asked different questions (and would not have called Mayfield “Irving”). But many people already consider jazz esoteric and inaccessible. Hearing Chideya say “I’m a jazz novice” invites a “me, too” response and a willingness to keep listening.

From there I check the NPR jazz & blues archive and get deliciously lost for the next couple of hours. Check these out if you’re so inclined. All were broadcast recently (within the last month or so).

A story about Two Men with the Blues, the new CD by Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson, and an interview with them on board Nelson’s bus.
A concert by the McCoy Tyner Quartet.
An interview with Cassandra Wilson about her new CD, Loverly.
A list of five pop songs covered by Patricia Barber.
A story about the Paul Bley trio’s reissued 1965 recording “Ida Lupino.”