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Kurt Elling

Kurt Elling (born November 2, 1967) is an American jazz singer and songwriter.

Kurt Elling

(1967-11-02) November 2, 1967
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Singer, composer

1995–present

Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church. He sang in choirs and played musical instruments. He encountered jazz while a student at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. After college, he enrolled in the University of Chicago Divinity School, but he left one credit short of a degree to pursue a career as a jazz vocalist.


Elling began to perform around Chicago, scat singing and improvising his lyrics. He recorded a demo in the early 1990s and was signed by Blue Note. He has been nominated for ten Grammy Awards, winning Best Vocal Jazz Album for Dedicated to You (2009) and Secrets Are the Best Stories (2021). Elling often leads the Down Beat magazine Critics' Poll. He had a longtime collaboration with pianist Laurence Hobgood, leading a quartet that toured throughout the world.[1]

Collaborators[edit]

Elling has performed and recorded with David Amram, Randy Bachman, Bob Belden, Joanne Brackeen, Oscar Brown Jr., Jodie Christian, Billy Corgan, Orbert Davis, George Freeman, Buddy Guy, Jon Hendricks, Charlie Hunter, Bob Mintzer, Brad Mehldau, Lee Ritenour, John Pizzarelli, and Bob Sheppard.


Until November 2013, Elling's band included musical director Laurence Hobgood on piano, John McLean on guitar, Clark Sommers on bass, and drummer Kendrick Scott. Howard Reich's wrote in his November 6, 2013 column "My kind of Jazz" in the Chicago Tribune, that Elling and Hobgood would be going separate ways. Hobgood linked to that article from his website. Elling's website announced the change on November 12, 2013.[14]


The band included a rotating series of pianists until October 2015 when Gary Versace became Kurt Elling's first-call pianist and was added to the Band page on Elling's website. Then in August 2016, Stu Mindeman took over as piano chair and Versace's page was moved to Extended Family.[15]


In 2016 he was a member of Branford Marsalis's quartet. He toured with the band and performed on the album Upward Spiral, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Marsalis co-produced Elling's album The Questions and performed on three songs.[16]

Personal life[edit]

In 1996, Elling married dancer Jennifer Carney.[17] Their daughter Luiza was born in 2005.[18] In the same year, the Ellings purchased a condominium from Barack Obama in Hyde Park, Chicago.[19] The Ellings moved to New York in 2008.

Coming of Age (Self Adhesive Records, 1991)

(Blue Note, 1995)

Close Your Eyes

(Blue Note, 1997)

The Messenger

(Blue Note, 1998)

This Time It's Love

(Blue Note, 2000)

Live in Chicago

(Blue Note, 2001)

Flirting with Twilight

(Blue Note, 2003)

Man in the Air

(Concord Jazz, 2007)

Nightmoves

(Concord, 2009)

Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman

(Concord, 2011)

The Gate

(Concord, 2012)

1619 Broadway – The Brill Building Project

Passion World (Concord, 2015)

The Beautiful Day: Kurt Elling Sings Christmas (, 2016)

Okeh

(Okeh, 2018)

The Questions

Secrets Are the Best Stories (, 2020)

Edition

Elling, Kurt (November 1997). . Jazziz Magazine.

"Guerrilla Diaries"

Elling, Kurt (2007). Richard Connolly (ed.). . Circumstantial Productions. ISBN 978-1-891592-06-5. Archived from the original on May 5, 2010. Retrieved July 3, 2010.

Lyrics

Chicago Jazz Magazine (September 1, 2010). . Chicago Jazz Magazine. Archived from the original on June 13, 2015.

"Kurt Elling and Laurence Hobgood...in their own words"

Elling, Kurt (November 8, 2004). . First delivered at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

"Spirituality, Poetry and Jazz: Some Thoughts Driving the Jazz Singer"

Gioia, Ted (February 2008). . Jazz.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2008.

"The State of Jazz Vocals Today"

(September 2006). "Kurt Elling: Being Fully in the Moment". Jazz Times. 36: 177.

Hentoff, Nat

Murray, Robert (April 17, 2008). (PDF). 2008 Season Program: Kurt Elling: Jazz and Orchestra. About the Music. Sydney Symphony. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 16, 2011.

"Some Notes on Kurt Elling"

Paige, Bill (November 15, 1997). . Billboard. Vol. 109, no. 46. Nielsen Business Media. ISSN 0006-2510.

"Local Noise: Kurt Elling"

Rubenstein, Ben (August 28, 2006). . Centerstage. Sun-Times Media. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008.

"Kurt Elling"

Official website