Do yourself a favor and buy this album, it is being released today!
Having studied jazz in Chicago, my musical character is heavily influenced by Kurt Elling and other exceptional Chicago vocalists. Elling is a methodical and intense musician, always delving further into the viscera of a tune than would many modern-day vocalists, myself included. Yet he also possesses a whimsical sense of humor that balances out the intensity of his musical genius.
I love Elling’s description of jazz singers’ various aesthetic approaches toward singing tunes:
“There’s a wide spectrum of possibilities in how to deliver a song,” notes Elling. “And with Johnny Hartman, who wasn’t a real improviser, it was a matter of finding the emotional content with his phrasing and his sound. All jazz singers deal with matters of greater complexity and greater simplification over the course of their careers. For me, I tend to want to shake things up, but sometimes – like Hartman – you have to have respect for the moment, and just sing the song.”
I must also enthusiastically recommend that you listen to Elling’s other incredible recordings, especially my favorites “Man in the Air” and “Nightmoves.”